As a licensed professional counselor with a master’s degree in clinical mental health, Kaley Chiles spends her days helping clients in Colorado Springs navigate trauma, addiction, identity, and other deeply personal struggles. She practices talk therapy—a method of healing that relies first and foremost on speech, specifically conversations between patients and therapists.
In 2019, the State of Colorado passed a law banning certain kinds of therapeutic conversations under the guise of outlawing “conversion therapy” for minors. The Colorado law forbids therapists from having open and honest conversations about the risks and benefits of gender transition for minors who are experiencing confusion or distress over their biological sex. People of good faith hold many different points of view on this topic, but the State of Colorado doesn’t see it that way. In Colorado, in order for Kaley to keep her license and to make a living in her chosen profession, she must parrot the state’s chosen point of view: that gender transition is always the best course of action for every child.
If Kaley instead has a conversation with a teenager about whether her feelings of being out of step with her sex are temporary or something she may grow out of, she could be subject to a $5,000 fine per session—or could even lose her license altogether.
Today, Kaley has to hold her tongue. She hasn’t changed how she listens. She hasn’t changed what she believes. But she’s been forced to change what she says.
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Mountain States Legal Foundation is filing an amicus brief in support of Kaley Chiles because the First Amendment doesn’t disappear the moment someone earns a professional license. If anything, counselors, doctors, teachers, and other licensed professionals need greater protection when their job depends on open and honest communication.
We’re supporting Kaley because:
- This law targets speech, not conduct. It punishes therapists for expressing disfavored viewpoints, even if those views reflect the client’s own goals and values.
- This is viewpoint discrimination. Colorado allows therapists to encourage a child to transition genders—but bans them from offering support for remaining aligned with biological sex.
What’s at Stake?
Kaley didn’t file this lawsuit to make headlines. She did it because the law makes her choose between silence and sanctions. She is fighting not just for herself, but for the ability of all counselors to help clients according to their professional judgment and personal integrity.
If Colorado’s law is upheld, the implications are chilling. It sets a precedent that the government can silence disfavored viewpoints simply by labeling them “conduct.” If the Court rules that counseling advice isn’t protected by the First Amendment, it opens the door for government control over what any professional can say—so long as their speech takes place within a commercial or licensed setting.
Worse still, it would give the state the power to criminalize one side of complex, evolving debates—on medicine, psychology, or morality—just because it prefers another. That’s not how a free society functions.