Protect Minnesota's Kids: Fix Our Conversion Therapy Ban Before It's Too Late
Protect Minnesota's Kids: Fix Our Conversion Therapy Ban Before It's Too Late
The Issue
In 2023, Minnesota did something right. With broad bipartisan support, the state legislature passed a law protecting young people from conversion therapy — the widely discredited practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. Eighty-one House members and thirty-six senators voted to keep Minnesota kids safe. It was a rare moment of unity in a divided time.
That protection is now under threat.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar ban in Colorado, ruling 8-1 that laws like Minnesota's may violate the First Amendment rights of licensed counselors. The ruling doesn't immediately void Minnesota's law — but it opens the door wide for legal challenges that could gut it entirely. Advocates at Gender Justice are already warning that Minnesota's ban is now vulnerable.
The medical community is clear: conversion therapy doesn't work, and it causes real harm. The Minnesota Department of Health, the American Psychological Association, and leading medical organizations have all documented the links between these practices and depression, anxiety, and increased suicide risk in young people. This isn't a debate about beliefs. It's a question of whether we allow licensed professionals to put children in danger.
Minnesota's LGBTQ+ youth and their families relied on the 2023 law as a guarantee. That guarantee is now in legal jeopardy — and the window to act is short.
We are calling on Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota State Legislature to move immediately. Strengthen and amend Minnesota's conversion therapy ban so it can withstand constitutional scrutiny. Explore civil liability pathways that give survivors the power to hold harmful practitioners accountable. And work with Attorney General Keith Ellison to defend Minnesota's protections against any legal challenges that may come.
Minnesota led on this issue once. Our kids — and the families who love them — need their leaders to lead again.
Sign this petition to demand that Governor Walz and the Minnesota Legislature act now to protect LGBTQ+ youth from conversion therapy before the courts take that protection away.
31
The Issue
In 2023, Minnesota did something right. With broad bipartisan support, the state legislature passed a law protecting young people from conversion therapy — the widely discredited practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. Eighty-one House members and thirty-six senators voted to keep Minnesota kids safe. It was a rare moment of unity in a divided time.
That protection is now under threat.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar ban in Colorado, ruling 8-1 that laws like Minnesota's may violate the First Amendment rights of licensed counselors. The ruling doesn't immediately void Minnesota's law — but it opens the door wide for legal challenges that could gut it entirely. Advocates at Gender Justice are already warning that Minnesota's ban is now vulnerable.
The medical community is clear: conversion therapy doesn't work, and it causes real harm. The Minnesota Department of Health, the American Psychological Association, and leading medical organizations have all documented the links between these practices and depression, anxiety, and increased suicide risk in young people. This isn't a debate about beliefs. It's a question of whether we allow licensed professionals to put children in danger.
Minnesota's LGBTQ+ youth and their families relied on the 2023 law as a guarantee. That guarantee is now in legal jeopardy — and the window to act is short.
We are calling on Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota State Legislature to move immediately. Strengthen and amend Minnesota's conversion therapy ban so it can withstand constitutional scrutiny. Explore civil liability pathways that give survivors the power to hold harmful practitioners accountable. And work with Attorney General Keith Ellison to defend Minnesota's protections against any legal challenges that may come.
Minnesota led on this issue once. Our kids — and the families who love them — need their leaders to lead again.
Sign this petition to demand that Governor Walz and the Minnesota Legislature act now to protect LGBTQ+ youth from conversion therapy before the courts take that protection away.
31
The Decision Makers
Supporter Voices
Petition created on April 3, 2026