By Cal Thomas – TheNewsHerald.com
When the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal in 2015, I wondered what standard they would use should polygamists appeal for similar rights. In accepting a case from Colorado Springs about whether a Christian counselor can advise minors with gender dysphoria and same-sex attractions, the Court will again face the question of free exercise of religion vs. the establishment clause in the First Amendment.
The case involves the parents of a teenager who claims to be a different gender than the one identified at birth. The Christian parents sought help from a counselor who shares their faith. A Colorado law bans “conversion therapy” for minors. The therapist, Kaley Chiles, says the law silences her and deprives young people of help. She further says she does not try to convert anyone to her faith.
In familiar secular progressive fashion, The Washington Post found a person it identifies as a transgender man, who it says tried to commit suicide in 2010. That person, says the newspaper, called conversion therapy bad medicine.
Parents, who have discovered that in many public schools their rights once thought to be “unalienable” have been eroded, could find they have lost the right to influence what they believe is the moral direction of their children, should the court deliver what they would regard as an adverse opinion, upholding the Colorado law, and denying the therapist’s right to tell patients what she believes will be best for them.