The Christian anti-LGBTQ+ legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) — defined as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn state bans on so-called conversion therapy for minors. Though the court hasn’t agreed to take on the case just yet, it provide insight into how ADF plans on challenging more conversion therapy bans in the future.
The ADF is providing legal counsel to licensed marriage and family counselor Brian Tingley in Tingley v. Ferguson, a legal challenge to Washington state’s ban. Tingley says the ban violates his rights to free speech and free exercise of religion, The New Republic reported.
Tingley’s petition to the court says that his speech as a therapist should be considered as “speech” and not professional “conduct.” He said he “lives in continuous fear of government persecution” because the ban “forbids him from speaking, treating his professional license as a license for government censorship.” Tingley says he should be able to offer conversion therapy — even though it has been widely disavowed as a form of psychological torture by numerous American mental health organizations — because some kids are actively seeking to change their sexual orientation.
I’m sure all the fringe medical therapy groups (read: scam artists) will jump right on this. Not that there’s really any difference between someone selling boner pills and these guys.
… boner pills work though?
Oh he lives in fear of government persecution? He should discuss what living in fear feels like with a survivor of conversion therapy.
Also, speaking as an educated professional, my professional speech needs to be bound to my professional standards, ethics, and modern understanding. If I don’t have that binding as an engineer people will get hurt. Same goes for lawyers. If you don’t want your speech restricted in a professional context don’t go into a profession that involves your communication. Or be a priest, they can apparently say whatever the fuck they want
They may have help in other places too - Mike Johnson (now Speaker of the House) was senior legal counsel at ADF for nearly a decade.
