Chiles v. Salazar
Case Snapshot
Recent years have seen an explosion in the number of children identifying as transgender. Many of these children have been led down a path of “gender transition”—enduring a regime of drugs, hormones, and surgeries that often results in profound regret and permanent health harms. The harms are so significant that 25 states and several European countries have banned or strictly limited gender transitions for children, advocating instead for compassionate counseling for their distress. Unfortunately, Colorado bans this compassionate approach, forcing therapists like Kaley Chiles to turn away children and families or risk losing her license and suffering crippling fines.
Status
On June 13, 2025, Becket filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the Supreme Court in support of Chiles, urging the Court to protect counselors’ ability to offer compassionate talk therapy to children experiencing gender dysphoria. The brief emphasizes that Colorado’s law targeting speech disproportionately harms religious youth and is incompatible with the First Amendment.
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Case Summary
A Nationwide Crisis
Between 2017 and 2021, the number of American young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria—an experience of severe distress over their biological sex—increased 300%. Research shows that the vast majority of these children will grow out of their distress naturally if allowed to go through puberty unhindered. Nevertheless, thousands of these children have instead been put through a “gender transition,” including a regime of puberty blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, to make their bodies resemble the opposite sex. There is no reliable evidence that these procedures offer any long-term benefits, and abundant evidence that they cause lasting harms—including increased risk of cancer, loss of bone density, sexual dysfunction, and permanent sterilization.
Because of these harms, 25 states and several European countries have banned or severely restricted gender transitions for children. And victims of this treatment are increasingly coming forward, asking why they were offered medical treatment to change their bodies, instead of compassionate care to help them navigate natural puberty and careful counseling to help them heal from the underlying causes of their discomfort. (See their stories.)
Counselors Can Help
Faith-based counselors nationwide help youth experiencing gender dysphoria by taking a more cautious approach. They talk with children to address the underlying causes of their discomfort, alleviate their distress, and, if possible, help them to accept their bodies without resorting to irreversible life-altering medical intervention. This approach is supported by the best available scientific evidence and supported by recently enacted laws in dozens of states and several European countries.
Colorado, however, bans counselors from using a cautious approach. Rather than allowing children to work through the root causes of their discomfort, state law requires counselors to affirm children in their belief that they were born in the wrong body—and only allows counseling that assists a child in undergoing a gender transition. As a result, therapists who offer compassionate talk therapy, like Kaley Chiles, face the loss of their license and fines of up to $5,000. Meanwhile, Colorado permits a wide range of high-risk treatments for youth mental illness—including medical marijuana, psychiatric hospitalization, electroconvulsive therapy, and surgeries that remove healthy body parts. But when it comes to simple conversation aimed at helping a child accept her body, Colorado imposes a total ban.
A defense of compassionate counseling
On June 13, 2025, Becket filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the Supreme Court on behalf of Chiles. The brief argues that Colorado’s ban on talk therapy disproportionately harms religious children and silences one side of an important medical debate—punishing counselors who want to help children work through the underlying causes of their distress without rushing into irreversible medical procedures. The brief urges the Court to protect the ability of therapists to offer compassionate care that reflects both sound science and their deeply held beliefs.
Colorado isn’t the only state targeting compassionate counseling for children experiencing gender dysphoria. In Michigan, Becket represents Catholic therapist Emily McJones and a local Catholic Charities counseling ministry in a case challenging a similar state law. Like Chiles, they are asking the courts to protect their ability to help children in distress without being forced to steer them toward life-altering medical interventions.
Importance to religious liberty:
- Free speech: Free speech includes the right to a free and peaceful exchange of ideas with others—including religious ideas. Freedom of speech and religious liberty go hand-in-hand; protecting one protects the other.
- Individual freedom: Religious freedom protects the rights of individuals to observe their faith at all times, including in the workplace.
- Parental Rights: Parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children. Teachings around family life and human sexuality lie at the heart of most religions, and Becket defends the right of parents to guide their own children on such matters.