Colorado House OKs bill allowing conversion therapy survivors to sue without time limits

This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.

DENVER | The Colorado House of Representatives on Thursday voted to approve a bill that would allow Coloradans who are survivors of “conversion therapy” to take legal action at any time against licensed providers who conducted the practice. 

House Bill 26-1322 would allow survivors to pursue legal action against a licensed mental health professional who conducted conversation therapy at any time after it occurred, removing the statute of limitations on those claims. Entities that hired and supervised a professional who conducted conversion therapy, a medically discredited practice, could be sued as well. 

The measure passed on a 40-23 vote mostly along party lines, with Rep. Bob Marshall, a Highlands Ranch Democrat, voting with Republicans against it. 

The bill seeks to align state law related to conversion therapy claims with laws that passed in 2021 removing the statute of limitations for child sexual assault claims. It does not create any criminal penalties or a new cause of action. The current statute of limitations for conversion therapy claims is two years. 

Rep. Karen McCormick, a Longmont Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said the measure would align the timeline for processing and understanding the trauma imposed by conversion therapy with the ability to take legal action. She is the mother of a transgender child.

“This bill ensures that when licensed mental health professionals engage in practices that cause harm, practices that every major medical, mental health organization and more has rejected as ineffective, dangerous, unethical — survivors and families, we don’t want them shut out of the legal system if that has happened,” McCormick said. 

Much of the testimony at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in support of the bill came from LGBTQ+ people who have been subjected to conversion therapy or whose loved ones were harmed by the practice. 

Rep. Alex Valdez, a Denver Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said “the science of human sexuality” has clearly shown that sexual orientation is not a choice that can be changed and that “people have to be who they are.”

“If your child comes to you and says that they are LGBTQ, there is no one out there that’s going to change that,” Valdez said.

Conversion therapy has been denounced by major medical organizations including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. They say the practice is not effective in changing sexual orientation or gender identity, and worsens patients’ mental health and increases rates of depression and suicidal ideation.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Colorado’s 2019 ban on conversion therapy by licensed providers seeks to “regulate speech based on viewpoint,” and therefore a legal standard known as “strict scrutiny” must be applied to it. A lower court will now have to apply that standard to determine the law’s constitutionality. 

Three amendments passed on second reading of the bill Wednesday, one of which was a technical amendment. One clarified that therapists can support patients exploring or aligning their gender identity “without steering them towards a predetermined outcome,” Valdez said. The last amendment updated the definition of conversion therapy in light of the Supreme Court ruling, McCormick said, focusing on coercive practices as opposed to speech that direct a patient toward a predetermined sexual orientation or gender identity.  

The bulk of legislator testimony on the House floor came from Republicans opposed to the measure. Many argued the bill is a loophole to continue to ban conversion therapy in Colorado despite the Supreme Court’s ruling. 

“This bill doesn’t protect children. It shifts power. 
It shifts it away from families and therapists and into the hands of the state, and that should concern every parent in Colorado,” Rep. Brandi Bradley, a Littleton Republican, said. “I think that this will be handled in the courts, just like it was at the Supreme Court, and Colorado will continue to lose.”

The bill will now move to the Senate for a committee hearing and floor votes in that chamber. Its Senate sponsors are Sens. Lisa Cutter, a Littleton Democrat, and Kyle Mullica, a Thornton Democrat.