Federal court upholds Washington’s ban on conversion therapy
SEATTLE — A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed that Washington state’s law protecting minors from conversion therapy is constitutional and may be enforced.
In its ruling the ninth circuit wrote: “In relying on the body of evidence before it as well as the medical recommendations of expert organizations, the Washington Legislature rationally acted by amending its regulatory scheme for licensed health care providers to add ‘performing conversion therapy on a patient under age eighteen’ to the list of unprofessional conduct for the health professions.” Washington prohibited licensed mental health professionals from subjecting minors to conversion therapy in 2018, as more than 20 other states have also done.
In a lawsuit filed last year in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington, a family therapist is claiming that a law banning the practice of applying conversion therapy techniques on minors and signed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee in 2018 is a violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Brian Tingley, who is represented by the Scottsdale, Arizona-based anti-LGBTQ Alliance Defending Freedom, (ADF), identifies himself as a “Christian licensed marriage and family therapist” and alleges in the court filings that the provided definition of “conversion therapy” is “vague, content-biased, and biased against one perspective or point of view.” Represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Equal Rights Washington intervened in the case to help the Washington Attorney General defend the law. “We are thrilled by today’s decision, which ensures that Washington’s lifesaving law can continue to be enforced and that LGBTQ children in Washington will not be
