WoLF Files Amicus Brief Urging Supreme Court to Protect Youth from “Affirmation-Only” Therapy - a rebranded form of the old conversion therapy.
Last week, Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a case challenging a Colorado law banning so-called “conversion therapy.” In Chiles v. Salazar, licensed therapist Kaley Chiles is asking the Court to overturn a law that bars mental health professionals from engaging in open-ended, exploratory therapy with minors who present with distress about their developing bodies and sexuality.
WoLF’s brief supports Chiles - not from a religious perspective, but from a radical feminist one. Our position is grounded in material reality, concern for child welfare, and our commitment to protecting the rights of same-sex-attracted youth, girls, and women.
The Colorado law at issue prohibits licensed counselors from “seeking to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” In practice, this means that if a teenage girl suddenly declares she is “really a boy,” her therapist must affirm that belief - and risks losing her license if she instead explores underlying causes like trauma, unwanted male attention and sexualization, sexual assault, autism, same-sex attraction, or social contagion.
This is not healthcare. It is compelled speech - and it is harming children.
A Law That Silences Therapists and Abandons Children
Under the Colorado statute, therapists are forbidden from asking basic questions that are essential to mental health care. They cannot ask why a young person believes they are transgender, whether that belief emerged suddenly or alongside social anxiety, sexual trauma, or internalized homophobia. Even acknowledging the possibility that gender dysphoria might have multiple causes could subject a counselor to discipline.
As our brief explains, this is not “banning conversion therapy” - it is banning therapy itself. It criminalizes the very process of helping young people understand themselves.
Meanwhile, children are being rushed toward medical interventions: puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries with irreversible consequences. There is no reliable evidence that these treatments improve long-term mental health. In fact, a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services review concluded that the evidence for pediatric medical transition is “low or very low quality.”
“Transing Away the Gay”: The Forgotten Harm
One of the most urgent concerns in this case - and a key focus of WoLF’s brief - is the impact of these laws on same-sex attracted youth. Many young people who come to identify as transgender later realize that they were simply gay, lesbian, or bisexual - and that their discomfort with their sex was rooted in homophobia, trauma, or societal expectations.
Yet under Colorado’s law, any effort to explore a child’s sexuality - or help them become more comfortable in their own sexed body - is off-limits. Ironically, the kind of therapy that once harmed gay youth (by trying to “convert” them to heterosexuality) is now being reversed and rebranded - by pushing them toward transition.
As WoLF wrote in its brief: “Many who identify as transgender at one point and later change their minds… have reported that they were, in fact, ‘just a gay kid.’ Yet they live with permanent damage to their reproductive and sexual organs and suffer a multitude of other physical and mental health problems.”
Girls in Crisis, Professionals in Handcuffs
The fastest-growing group of young people identifying as transgender is adolescent girls - many of whom have no prior history of gender issues. Peer contagion, social media, early exposure to violent pornography, and rampant cultural misogyny that becomes internalized play major roles. Studies like the Cass Review (UK) and recent U.S. federal health reports confirm these patterns and warn that medical interventions are being used without adequate psychological evaluation.
Rather than encouraging therapists to help girls navigate a world hostile to them, Colorado’s law blocks the kind of careful, supportive counseling these girls need. As our brief explains, social transition is not harmless - it significantly increases the likelihood of medical transition. And there is growing evidence that children with autism, PTSD, and same-sex attraction are disproportionately represented among those being transitioned.
Therapists must be allowed to talk to their clients without ideological shackles. Children deserve treatment based on their individual needs - not a predetermined narrative enforced by the state.
Gender Ideology Is Not a Substitute for Law or Science
As in WoLF’s other cases - including the recent cases Wuoti v. Winters and Mahmoud v. Taylor, this case involves the state enforcing gender ideology through law, and punishing those who refuse to comply. In each case, women’s rights, free expression, and the safeguarding of children are subordinated to a belief system that has no scientific grounding and demands total allegiance.
Gender identity is not the same as sexual orientation. And treating them as interchangeable - in law or in therapy - results in the erasure of same-sex-attracted people and the silencing of women and girls.
A Secular Argument for Reality-Based Care
WoLF submitted this amicus brief not to defend any particular religious viewpoint, but to defend the rights of professionals and patients to speak freely, think critically, and receive reality-based care. We are a feminist organization that believes in protecting women and girls from harm - including the harm to children of ideologically driven medicalization.
You can read the full brief here.
Help Us Keep Fighting
The law should not force counselors to lie to their patients. Therapists should not fear losing their licenses for doing their jobs. And children - especially girls and same-sex attracted youth - should not be pushed down a path of irreversible harm just to satisfy a political agenda.
If you believe in protecting the rights of women, lesbians, and vulnerable children from state-enforced gender ideology, please donate to WoLF today.
Together, we can defend the truth. Together, we can win.