Jason Van Ness

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Conversion therapy is evolving. Here’s how the religious right is reaching modern youth.

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While there is still a group of people who believe adolescents experiencing same-sex attractions can actually overcome their identities to become heterosexual, the overall mindset among the religious right has shifted.  Nowadays, the thinking tends to be that just because a person is LGBTQ+ does not mean they have to act on their desires (e.g., love the sinner, hate the sin). Prominent Christian apologist William Lane Craig has consistently espoused this belief both on his website and at public speaking events. Craig, who has had a profound influence on the field of conservative Christianity in academic settings and the growing […]

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Campaign to overturn Obergefell uses 14-year-old junk science to ‘prove’ gay people are bad parents

Leading up to the 2015 landmark Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, which made marriage equality a federal right, sociologist Mark Regnerus published controversial research titled the “New Family Structures Study”. Regnerus, who is forthcoming about the fact that his Catholic faith shapes his practice as a social scientist, published the study in 2012 in the journal Social Science Research.  The study purported that children raised by a parent in a same-gender relationship are at greater risk of negative psychosocial outcomes in adulthood compared to children raised by straight parents. The study was funded primarily by The Witherspoon Institute and The Bradley Foundation, […]

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Fighting for LGBTQ+ youth: The cases challenging conversion therapy bans

In 2022, licensed professional counselor (LPC) Kaley Chiles filed a lawsuit against Colorado over its ban on conversion therapies for minors. Chiles states she helps her minor clients to “reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of physical harmony within one’s body” and contends that the ban violates her First Amendment right to free speech and the free exercise of religion. The Colorado Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the ban; however, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear her case (Chiles v. Salazar) in […]