08/10/2026
The order came down on July 30. A federal judge ruled that Michigan's ban on conversion therapy for minors violates the First Amendment, and the state agreed last Thursday to stop enforcing it — the first state to abandon its ban since the Supreme Court decided Chiles v. Salazar in March.
That ruling, 8-1, held that therapists have a free speech right to try to change a child's sexual orientation or gender identity.
The suit against Michigan came from Catholic Charities of three counties. Attorney General Dana Nessel is weighing an appeal. Her statement: conversion therapy is "a destructive, demoralizing, and debunked practice" that doctors agree raises the risk of su***de and depression in young people forced to endure it.
She added a warning worth sitting with — if therapists can harm clients under the banner of free speech, other licensed professions will want the same carveout.
Here is the part that should tell you how thin the protection was. Michigan's ban only ever covered licensed mental health professionals. It never touched unlicensed coaches, clergy, or church ministries, which is where most conversion therapy actually happens — and where Joanna Whaley spent fifteen years.
The law that just died would not have saved her.
Whaley is 38, a former worship leader who spent nearly two decades in evangelical ministry before her church forced her out in 2022.
She went to seminary, found a progressive congregation, and became a chaplain in emergency rooms and hospice care.
On November 3 she faces Republican Ronald Kokinda in a district Democrats reliably win.
Michigan has never sent an openly transgender person to Lansing.
That is 90 days away from changing.
