Michigan Waves The White Flag On Child ‘Conversion Therapy’ Ban

Democrat-run Michigan just backed down after threatening therapists who use talk therapy to help children with ‘gender dysphoria’ accept their biology. 

On Thursday, the state agreed to a permanent federal court order barring it from ever enforcing House Bill 4616 – the 2023 law, signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, that threatened licensed counselors with discipline for engaging in ordinary talk therapy with minors experiencing gender dysphoria. U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering signed off on the stipulated judgment, and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the counselors who sued, wasted no time declaring victory according to the Daily Caller.

Interestingly, a year and a half earlier the same judge sided with the state.

Backstory

Whitmer signed HB 4616 and its companion bill in July 2023, making Michigan the 22nd state to bar mental health professionals from what the statute broadly defined as “conversion therapy” for minors – not just efforts to change sexual orientation, but any “efforts to change behavior or gender expression.” At the time, Whitmer said Michigan was “banning the horrific practice of conversion therapy” and pitched the law as making the state more welcoming for LGBTQ kids.

Then the law met the constitution… Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties, joined by Lansing therapist Emily McJones of Little Flower Counseling, sued in 2024, arguing the ban was viewpoint discrimination dressed up as medical regulation. Judge Beckering initially sided with the state, denying a preliminary injunction in February 2025. The counselors appealed – and won.

Late last year, the Sixth Circuit reversed her, becoming the first federal appeals court in the country to block a statewide “conversion therapy” ban of this kind. Judge Raymond Kethledge wrote for the majority that the state’s theory “faces strong headwinds as applied to counseling that consists solely of spoken words.” Judge Rachel Bloomekatz, a Biden appointee, dissented, arguing the ban was likely constitutional because every major medical association treats “conversion therapy” as illegitimate care.

Then SCOTUS Weighed In

On March 31, the Court ruled 8-1 in Chiles v. Salazar that Colorado’s nearly identical “conversion therapy” ban had to survive strict First Amendment scrutiny – a standard laws like it almost never clear. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion; Justice Elena Kagan concurred, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor; only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Buried in Gorsuch’s opinion was a citation to the Sixth Circuit’s Michigan ruling – the same case now forcing Whitmer’s hand. The Trevor Project called the ruling a disappointing setback for LGBTQ+ youth mental health protections.

Michigan didn’t fold right away. After Chiles came down, Attorney General Dana Nessel – the state’s first openly gay AG – argued free speech doesn’t give medical professionals license to harm their patients, and said her office would review the ruling before deciding on next steps. Whitmer vowed to keep protecting LGBTQ youth “as long as I’m governor.” Four months and one dead legal theory later, the state signed the permanent order instead.

“Common Sense,” Says Becket

Becket’s Luke Goodrich, the counselors’ lead attorney, called the outcome “a major victory for children, counselors, and common sense.” He also argued – pointing to the roughly two dozen U.S. states and several European countries that have moved to restrict youth gender-transition medicine in recent years – that Michigan’s ban was pushing kids toward medical intervention rather than away from it, and that the new order protects every licensed talk therapist in the state, not just his own clients.

It’s Becket’s second major win on this exact front this year. In February, its Mahmoud v. Taylor case – over Maryland parents’ right to pull kids from classroom readings on gender transition and same-sex romance – ended in a $1.5 million settlement, as ZeroHedge reported at the time. The nonprofit hasn’t lost a case at the Supreme Court since 2012.

As we noted back in April, Colorado didn’t take its own 8-1 loss quietly – state lawmakers hit back with a bill making it easier to sue “conversion therapy” counselors and stripping away the usual time limit for filing those suits. Whether Michigan tries the same counterpunch, or just lets its ban die quietly, is still an open question. Either way, every other state running a similar law is standing on considerably thinner ice than it was four months ago.