Outrage at Stonewall after Supreme Court voids Colorado's conversion therapy ban

Following a controversial Supreme Court decision striking down Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, advocates gathered in solidarity at the site of America’s most famous LGBTQ+ protest.

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Many of New York’s most prominent activists, from conversion therapy survivors to celebrated drag queens, came together for an emergency rally at Stonewall National Monument.

“I am a trans, queer woman, and I am a nurse,” said Qween Amor, an activist and a registered nurse. “I am standing at Stonewall because something dangerous just happened, and we cannot pretend that it didn't.”

A performance artist and activist, Amor said they also work as a registered nurse. Amor said if a child came to an emergency room and reported being sent to conversion therapy, the appropriate response would be to follow a mandate and report it to child protective services.

Jay Walker speaks to supporters gathered at the Stonewall National Monument to protest the Supreme Court's ruling strking down Colorado's ban on conversion therapy.Chela Crinnion

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"Conversion therapy is not therapy," Amor said. "It is abuse."

But Supreme Court justices issued an 8-1 ruling, published on the Transgender Day of Visibility, that conversion therapy, at least that offered as a form of talk therapy, was protected free speech.

“Consistent with the First Amendment’s jealous protections for the individual’s right to think and speak freely, this Court has long held that laws regulating speech based on its subject matter or ‘communicative content’ are ‘presumptively unconstitutional,’” reads the majority opinion in Chiles v. Salazar.

But activists at the Stonewall rally said efforts to change sexuality or gender identity are not worthy of the term therapy. Brian Romero, a candidate for the New York State Assembly, said the ruling threatened New York’s 2019 law banning the practice.

“What we see when individuals experience conversion therapy is adults who grow up to be homeless, who suffer from substance abuse, depression, anxiety, suicidality, an inability to sustain relationships and connect,” Romero said. “These are incredibly harmful results of this decision.”

Related: Kids can be subjected to harmful 'conversion therapy,’ U.S. Supreme Court rules

Related: No LGB without the T — queer community protests Trump's transgender erasure at Stonewall

Co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, adjacent to the Stonewall National Monument, Stacy Lentz speaks at a protest against the Supreme Court's ruling striking down Colorado's ban on conversion therapy.Donna Aceto

Jay Walker, co-founder of the Queer Liberation March, said lawmakers in progressive states like New York must find ways to address the social ills of conversion efforts. Also a co-founder of Gays Against Guns, he noted lawmakers had to respond similarly to a pro-gun rights ruling that changed a New York statute in the past

“Our legislatures went to work reading through every word in that decision so that they could write in a raft of new laws that could skirt around it and still protect us from gun violence. We want our legislature and our governor to do the exact same thing,” he said. “We need them to pore over this decision and make sure that we have laws in place that will continue to protect young, queer, trans, and questioning children from the abuses that conversion therapy would inflict on them.

Marti Cummings, a drag queen and activist, gave a riveting speech noting the failures of Republican leaders in Washington to expose those involved in dead billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking, but were trying to ensure malignant people could force children into conversion therapy.

Marti Cummings, a drag queen and activist, gave a forceful speech noting the failures of Republican leaders in Washington to expose those involved in deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking, while pushing policies that critics say could enable people to force children into conversion therapy.

“The party of family values and protecting children are not protecting children. They are the ones who are perpetrating abuse and violence, and they say they do it in the name of God,” Cummings said.

“But we are a country that has religious freedom. We don’t have one religion. And the gods that I know of from every major religion practice love, acceptance, joy, welcoming your family in, and loving your children unconditionally. And if you are a parent sending your child to conversion therapy, you don’t have a right to be a parent.”