The Denver Post, through a Daily Camera article by James Burky, reports that Colorado lawmakers are moving a new bill that would allow Coloradans who say they were harmed by conversion therapy to sue former practitioners for damages. The measure, HB26-1322, comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, because apparently an 8-1 legal faceplant is not a warning sign in Denver. It is a dare.
The bill is co-sponsored by Longmont Democrat Rep. Karen McCormick and would create a civil cause of action for alleged injuries caused by conversion therapy. It passed the House earlier this month, cleared its first Senate Judiciary Committee reading on a 5-2 party-line vote, and is headed toward the Senate floor. In Colorado Democrat logic, when the Constitution taps you on the shoulder, you do not listen. You write another bill and call it justice.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The bill would allow people who were subjected to conversion therapy to pursue civil lawsuits against former practitioners. Nothing says “we respect the court” like immediately looking for a side door.
- HB26-1322 establishes a cause of action for claims of injury caused by conversion therapy and allows for economic, noneconomic, and exemplary damages. Translation: the ban got smacked, so now they are trying the litigation route.
- The bill defines conversion therapy as a practice by a licensed mental health-care provider that seeks to direct a patient toward a predetermined sexual orientation or gender identity outcome, or eliminate or reduce attraction toward a specific gender or sexual orientation. That is a legal mouthful with a lot of room for political mischief.
- Opponents warned the bill could chill speech, burden religious objections, and punish counseling conversations, including cases where a client asks for help becoming more comfortable with his or her biological sex. But in today’s Colorado, disagreement is apparently one committee vote away from being treated like malpractice.
- Supporters argued the measure is needed for people harmed by a practice the American Psychological Association calls discredited. Fair enough, harm matters. But so do free speech, due process, religious liberty, and not turning every ideological disagreement into a lawsuit vending machine.
My Bottom Line
Colorado’s virtue-signaling Democrats could not care less that the Supreme Court ruled against their wrongful legislation. An 8-1 rebuke should make serious lawmakers pause, reflect, and maybe reread the Constitution without using it as a coaster. Instead, they doubled down. Because of course they did.
This is the problem with government by emotional performance. It starts with a sympathetic story, adds a press release, sprinkles in the word “justice,” and then dares anyone to ask whether the bill is constitutional, fair, workable, or ripe for abuse. Ask those questions and suddenly you are the villain. Very convenient. Very Colorado legislature.
No decent person wants vulnerable people harmed. No decent person celebrates despair, coercion, or cruelty. But protecting people does not give the state permission to bulldoze free speech, religious liberty, counseling relationships, or parental concerns just because the majority party has found another culture-war trophy to mount over the Capitol fireplace.
These people are fools if they think good intentions excuse bad law. The Supreme Court already sent them a message. They heard it, ignored it, and started drafting. That is not courage. That is arrogance with a bill number.
Source: The Denver Post
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