‘Must Stay Gay’ Laws

Jennifer Roback Morse, 10/11/25

A case before the Supreme Court could end the left’s attempt to stifle dissent in the therapist’s office.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in Chiles v. Salazar, a case that could reshape counseling freedom across America. The law at issue is one of several so-called “conversion therapy bans” that restrict what therapists may say to their clients.  

The Ruth Institute calls them what they are: “Must Stay Gay” laws.  These laws silence counselors and harm families, especially young people struggling with trauma, anxiety, and sexual confusion. The question before the court is simple: Does the First Amendment allow a state to dictate which viewpoints a licensed therapist may express?

A Strong Signal from the Court  

The central issue in Chiles is viewpoint discrimination. Colorado’s law allows therapists to affirm a child’s same-sex attraction or gender confusion — but forbids them from helping a client resist or change those feelings.  Justice Samuel Alito captured the absurdity in one hypothetical, which I paraphrase (the whole argument is here):

An adolescent male comes to a licensed therapist; he feels uneasy and guilty about feeling attracted to other boys. He asks the therapist to help him feel better as a gay man. Colorado law permits this. Another adolescent male goes to a licensed therapist and asks him to help him feel less attracted to other boys. Colorado law forbids this.

That’s government picking sides in a moral debate, not equality under the law.

It’s Time to Audit the Death Bureaucracy

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/3789116/time-to-audit-death-bureaucracy

A deeply disturbing investigative report in UnHerd 

last week uncovered rampant violations of physician-assisted suicide practices in states with the oldest and largest programs. The 11 states that have legalized assisted suicide require clinicians to submit compliance forms shortly after the “patient’s” death. But the chaotic assisted-suicide bureaucracy rarely follows regulations, and clinicians put people to death with little to no oversight.

Between 2009 and 2023, 515 compliance forms and 293 “written request” documents were missing in the state of Washington. In all, one-third of the state’s assisted suicides were improperly reported. In Colorado, which passed its End of Life Options Act in 2016, almost 1,800 compliance forms are missing. And in New Mexico, where annual compliance reporting is also required by law, there has not been a single report issued since assisted suicide was enacted in 2021. For years, the state’s website suggested that a report was “coming soon,” but state officials quietly removed that promise from its website this summer....

Disturbingly, there have been no suspensions or revocations of clinician licenses connected with these irregularities.

Assisted Suicide, Once Legal Inevitably Expands

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.  (pictured right).

When a jurisdiction is debating an assisted suicide bill, many organizations and individuals present information about the necessary safeguards that the jurisdiction must implement to “safely” legalize assisted suicide.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition knows that it is not possible to “safely” legalize assisted suicide and once legal the law will inevitably expand.

Great Britain is currently debating an assisted suicide bill  sponsored by Kim Leadbeater. Many states have already introduced assisted suicide bills in 2025 and we anticipate many more legalization bills this year. We know that some states that have legalized assisted suicide will debate bills to expand their law.  

This article focuses on the experience with assisted suicide in jurisdictions where it is legal. 

Nearly every jurisdiction that has legalized assisted suicide, later expanded their law.

The assisted suicide lobby groups know that it is more difficult to legalize assisted suicide than it is to expand the law once it is legal.

Anita Cameron: "My Mum Didn't Die"*

Good morning. I’m Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national, grassroots disability organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide laws are dangerous because though these laws are supposed to be for people with six months or less to live, doctors are often wrong about a terminal diagnosis. In 2009, while living in Washington state, my mother was determined to be at the end stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I was told her death was imminent, that if I wanted to see her alive, I should get there in two days. She rallied, but was still quite ill, so she was placed in hospice. Her doctor said that her body had begun the process of dying.

Though she survived 6 months of hospice, her doctor convinced her that her body was still in the process of dying, and she moved home to Colorado to die.

My mum didn’t die. In fact, six weeks after returning to Colorado, she and I were arrested together in Washington, DC, fighting for disability justice. She became active in her community and lived almost 12 years!

Denver Post Switches Sides: Votes "NO" on Prop. 106

https://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/11/no-on-proposition-106-aid-in-dying-measure-lacks-proper-safeguards/

After a lot of soul-searching, we are asking voters to reject Proposition 106, a measure that would give patients the legal right to end their life, because we fear the cultural, legal and medical shift that it would create in Colorado.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board: "Vote 'no' on more suicide"

http://gazette.com/editorial-vote-no-on-more-suicide/article/1586396

Proposition 106 would establish the assisted suicide trade for doctors willing to participate. An out-of-state special interest, funded mostly by billionaire George Soros, has marketed this measure as a form of compassion.

Suicide rates are a crisis in Colorado, and a poorly written plan to legitimize these tragedies raises big concerns.