Virginia's ban on sexual orientation change efforts talk therapy for LGBT-identified minors, referred to by critics as "gay conversion therapy," has been effectively struck down following a legal challenge by two Christian counselors.
John and Janet Raymond, along with the Virginia Department of Health Professions, agreed to a consent decree last month in the Circuit Court of Henrico County, which was recently made public.
The measure, HB 386, bars licensed professionals from trying to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity and regards such counseling as unprofessional conduct and grounds for disciplinary action.
According to the decree, the state's ban on talk therapy for individuals with unwanted same-sex attraction will no longer be enforced against the Raymonds or "similarly-situated counselors."
The legislation will still ban other "conversion therapy" practices that are outside of talk therapy, such as electric shock. Each party in the litigation agrees to pay its own legal fees and other expenses.
Before the law took effect in 2020, the Raymonds regularly counseled minors on a wide variety of issues. But after the enactment of the law, the Raymonds stopped seeing minors as clients almost entirely.
The Raymonds operate the Associate Counseling Center, which provides counseling for marriages, families, men and women from a Christian worldview. The couple sued the state over the ban enacted in 2020 under the leadership of Democratic former Gov. Ralph Northam, arguing that it violated their sincerely-held religious beliefs regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Founding Freedoms Law Center, which represented the Raymonds, called the order a "victory for free speech and religious freedom."
Shaun Kenney, a spokesperson for Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, told Richmond-based news outlet WRIC on Tuesday that he was "satisfied with the outcome and look forward to continuing to protect religious freedom and free speech."
"This court action fixes a constitutional problem with the existing law by allowing talk therapy between willing counselors and willing patients, including those struggling with gender dysphoria," stated Kenney.
"Talk therapy with voluntary participants was punishable before this judgment was entered. This result — which merely permits talk therapy within the standards of care while preserving the remainder of the law — respects the religious liberty and free speech rights of both counselors and patients."
Also called "reparative therapy," SOCE therapy involves counseling efforts to reduce or eliminate same-sex sexual attraction in a person.
Such therapy is rejected by mainstream American psychiatric organizations and LGBT advocacy organizations, which believe that the counseling in question poses harms to LGBT-identified individuals, especially minors.
However, the conservative American College of Pediatricians reports that the number of American children presenting with "gender-related psychological distress has surged in recent years" and that "psychotherapy, often in the form of change-allowing talk therapy, is a well-accepted method of addressing psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions."
Furthermore, the group contends that state bans on such talk therapy bar even "client-initiated, exploratory psychotherapy if the client's goal is to feel at peace with their biological sex."
In 2020, after signing the bill into law, Northam claimed that the therapy "sends the harmful message that there is something wrong with who you are."
"This discriminatory practice has been widely discredited in studies and can have lasting effects on our youth, putting them at a greater risk of depression and suicide," Northam said in a statement at the time.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a legal challenge to Colorado's ban on conversion therapy, which argues that the law violates the First Amendment of the Constitution.
"When children who are distressed with thoughts (i.e. 'gender identities') not aligned with their bodies (i.e. biological sex) present to a counselor, this statute forbids the counselor from resolving that distress by affirming their bodies and exploring the underlying reasons their thoughts are at odds with their bodies," the ACP wrote in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month in relation to the Colorado case.
"The harms of Colorado's statute are especially evident here as (1) the majority of youth with gender dysphoria also suffer from pre-existing underlying mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, trauma, or autism, and (2) between 80-95% of youth with gender dysphoria will naturally desist as they age — if they are not affirmed in false ideas of sexual identity. Yet Colorado bans client-directed speech that treats depression or trauma in youth when that speech opposes the State's view of gender. The law is based on the State's preferred ideology, not evidence."
