Dismantling Protections against Conversion “Therapy” – An Emerging Front in Abusive State Preemption
This post was written by Logan Casey, PhD, Director of Policy Research for the Movement Advancement Project (MAP). He also serves as a part of the 2025 Research Cohort for the Local Solutions Support Center. This year the Local Solutions Support Center will feature in-depth blog features authored by the members of our Research Cohort. Each member of our Research Cohort will explore a different topic and its connection to preemption.
Since 2012, a growing number of states and municipalities have taken action to protect LGBTQ+ youth from the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion “therapy.” But in recent years, amid escalating political attacks on LGBTQ+ people across virtually every aspect of life, there are also growing attacks on these protections—including through abusive preemption tactics.
What is conversion therapy and why do these protective laws matter?
Conversion therapy is a dangerous and discredited practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. These practices have gone by many misleading euphemisms over many years, including “ex-gay therapy,” “reparative therapy,” and, more recently, “exploratory therapy.” No matter the name, these practices share the fundamental premise that being LGBTQ+ is wrong, undesirable, and abnormal. Leading medical organizations – including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics – all have spoken out against the harmful practice.¹
In 2012, California became the first state to prohibit state-licensed healthcare providers from subjecting minors to these dangerous, unscientific practices.² Since then, and as shown in Figure 1, more than two dozen states and over 100 municipalities across the country have followed suit.
Figure 1 • Source: Movement Advancement Project. “Equality Maps: Conversion 'Therapy' Laws.” Data as of August 1, 2025.
Abusive state preemption and other attacks
Since the first law protecting youth from conversion therapy was enacted in 2012, there have been numerous efforts by opponents of LGBTQ+ equality—including lawsuits, legislation, budget threats, and more—to rescind existing protections and prevent new ones. These tactics have only escalated in recent years.
Out of the numerous federal courts that have considered these challenges, all but one has ruled in favor of protecting LGBTQ+ youth against conversion therapy. The lone exception is a 2020 split-decision from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.³ This case challenged local-level protections in Florida, and the Eleventh Circuit ultimately found these local ordinances to be unenforceable—effectively preempting the existing ordinances of 23 separate municipalities as a result, as well as potential future ordinances anywhere in the circuit (Florida, Alabama, and Georgia).
In 2023, Indiana became the first state in the country to explicitly prohibit or preempt municipalities from protecting youth from conversion therapy at the local level.⁴
In 2025, the South Carolina legislature forced a provision into the state’s budget that explicitly withholds state funding from any municipality with local level protections against conversion therapy.⁵ While such ordinances are still technically allowed, the threatened loss of state funding effectively deters such ordinances—and indeed, the state’s capital Columbia, the lone city with such an ordinance, voted to repeal its ordinance shortly after the budget was signed by the governor.
In at least four different years since 2015, legislators in Oklahoma repeatedly considered (but ultimately never adopted) a bill calling for a “right” to conversion therapy, under the misleading name “Parental and Family Rights in Counseling Protection Act”—though sometimes also referred to as the “Freedom to Obtain Conversion Therapy Act.”⁶ The bill generally would have prevented the state or municipalities from protecting youth from these dangerous practices, and codified into law that people have an affirmative right to conversion therapy—including that parents can subject their minor children to these practices “without interference by the state.”
Unfortunately—and particularly under the second Trump administration—these widespread attacks on LGBTQ+ people are likely to continue into the foreseeable future.
Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a legal challenge to Colorado’s law protecting youth against the harmful practice. The case, Chiles v. Salazar, will be argued in the fall of 2025. The case has potential national implications, including the greenlighting of further abusive preemption efforts.
How to protect LGBTQ+ youth and fight abusive preemption
This is a difficult time for many LGBTQ+ people, their families, and their communities across the country. Political attacks on LGBTQ+ people are escalating, including in relation to conversion therapy. The tactics used to attack LGBTQ+ people and their rights are diverse—ranging from lawsuits and legislation to budget threats, abusive preemption, and much more—and the key tactics at play may vary from one state to the next.
But though the attacks on LGBTQ+ people are widespread, these fights are winnable. For example, over the last 15 years, LGBTQ+ advocates have routinely defeated roughly 90 percent of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in state legislatures each year.⁷ And, in the specific context of conversion therapy, a 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision ruled that state legislators’ repeated attempts to block statewide regulations protecting youth from conversion therapy were unconstitutional—allowing protections to go into effect.⁸ While not a direct example of abusive preemption of local efforts, it still demonstrates the varied tactics working to undermine protections against conversion therapy—and, importantly, that these attacks are far from guaranteed to win.
Given the diversity of attacks and tactics, one particularly helpful way to help protect LGBTQ+ youth—and LGBTQ+ people more broadly—is to get involved with your state or local LGBTQ+ organizations. The Equality Federation, for example, is a network of state-level organizations working to advance LGBTQ+ equality and justice across the country, and those member organizations are key players in each state’s political landscape and can help people connect to what’s happening. Similarly, CenterLink is a network of LGBTQ+ community centers across the country, many of which are also actively involved in local and state advocacy for LGBTQ+ people and rights—as well as active providers of social and community programming, health services, and much more.
These locally rooted organizations can be effective ways for individuals across the country to join the fight for their LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors, including against abusive state preemption tactics.
Read more about conversion “therapy” laws in MAP’s latest report: LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Laws Protecting LGBTQ Youth From Conversion “Therapy”
End Notes
1. “United States Joint Statement Against Conversion Efforts.” 2023.
2. Movement Advancement Project. 2025. “Equality Map: Conversion ‘Therapy’ Laws.” See citation sheet’s chronology.
3. Otto v. City of Boca Raton. 2020.
4. Leslie Bonilla Muñiz. 2023. “Senate passes bill inspired by conversion therapy dispute.” Indiana Capital Chronicle.
5. Maayan Schecter. 2025. “Columbia leaders warn of $3.7M budget loss as City Council delays conversion therapy ban vote again.” South Carolina Public Radio.
6. Oklahoma Legislature: HB1598 (2015-2016), HB1004 (2021), and HB2973 (2022). See also Karoline Leonard, 2022, “Oklahoma House State Powers presents bill to prohibit restriction of conversion therapy on 2SLGBTQ+ individuals,” The OU Daily.
7. Movement Advancement Project. 2025. “Despite the Attacks Against Us, LGBTQ+ People Know How to Win.”
8. Anya Van Wagtendonk and Rob Mentzer. 2025. “Wisconsin Supreme Court sides with Evers in dispute over conversion therapy ban, rulemaking power.” Wisconsin Public Radio.