Here is the thing about a conversion therapy ban: it is not an abstract policy debate. It is a teenager who gets to keep their therapist instead of being handed over to someone tasked with “fixing” who they are. In 2026, the map of where that protection exists is shifting faster than it has in years, and not always in the direction you would hope.
The short version: more than half of U.S. states still shield LGBTQ minors from these practices, a growing list of countries have passed national bans, and every major medical association on the planet has been saying the same thing for decades. Conversion therapy does not work, and it hurts people.
The longer version is messier, because in March 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court got involved. So let’s walk through where things actually stand, who is protected, who suddenly is not, and why survivors and advocates are equal parts furious and resolved.
“Conversion therapy” is the umbrella term for any practice that claims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Clinicians often call it SOGICE — sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts — which is uglier but more honest, because there is no therapy happening. The goal is not healing. The goal is erasure.
It has taken many forms over the years: talk-based counseling that frames being gay or trans as a defect to be corrected, prayer-and-shame programs run through religious networks, and in its darker history, aversion techniques meant to associate queerness with pain. What unites all of it is a starting assumption that there is something wrong with the person sitting in the chair.
And here is the part the medical world is not subtle about: it does not deliver what it promises. There is a broad scientific consensus that these efforts fail to change orientation or identity and are linked to serious, lasting harm.
If you take one thing from this piece, take this: the people who study the human mind for a living are not split on conversion therapy. The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a long roster of medical and mental health bodies have rejected it as ineffective and potentially harmful. The APA’s own evidence review is blunt about the lack of any sound science supporting it (read the APA’s summary here).
The American Academy of Pediatrics has gone as far as to say these practices are never indicated for young people, and that they can deepen stigma, distress, and depression rather than relieve anything. Research consistently associates exposure to conversion therapy with significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation and attempts, especially among LGBTQ youth who are already navigating rejection.
This matters legally, too. The reason so many conversion therapy laws focus on licensed providers and minors is precisely because professional standards already say this is not legitimate care. Banning it from the regulated healthcare system is, in part, an effort to make the law match what medicine figured out a long time ago.
For anyone searching “where is conversion therapy banned,” the U.S. answer in 2026 is: in a lot of places, but with new asterisks. Roughly two dozen states plus Washington, D.C. prohibit licensed providers from subjecting LGBTQ minors to these practices, and several additional states and territories have partial restrictions on the books. Many cities and counties have passed their own local ordinances on top of that, so protection sometimes exists at the municipal level even where a state has not acted.
The Movement Advancement Project keeps a running map of these conversion therapy laws, and it is the closest thing to a reliable scoreboard as the numbers shift (you can check the current map here). If you want to know your specific state’s status this week, that is where to look, because “this week” is doing real work in that sentence right now.
Generally, these state laws share a few features:
On March 31, 2026, the Supreme Court decided Chiles v. Salazar, a challenge to Colorado’s ban brought by a licensed counselor who argued the law restricted her speech. In an 8–1 decision, the Court held that Colorado’s ban, as applied to talk therapy, regulates speech based on viewpoint and therefore must survive strict scrutiny — the toughest standard in constitutional law (SCOTUSblog has a clear breakdown).
Crucially, the Court did not strike Colorado’s law down outright. It sent the case back to the lower courts to be re-evaluated under that stricter standard, and the majority noted that bans on more coercive “conversion” practices, like physical aversion techniques, raise no free-speech problem at all. In May 2026, Colorado responded by amending its statute to narrow how it defines conversion therapy and keep the protection on its feet.
So conversion therapy bans are not dead in the United States. But the ruling created an opening, and the practical reality is that the legal terrain has gotten bumpier. Some state-level protections have been challenged, blocked, or narrowed in recent court fights, which is exactly why that “check the map” advice matters more than usual.
Zoom out from the U.S. patchwork and the trend internationally has been toward broader, country-wide action. A growing number of countries have passed national bans on conversion practices, and several arrived recently. Norway, Portugal, and Mexico all enacted national bans in 2024, joining countries like Canada, France, Germany, Malta, New Zealand, Iceland, and Spain.
The approaches vary. Some countries ban conversion practices by anyone, full stop. Others restrict them only when performed by medical professionals. A smaller group has what advocates call indirect bans, where the legal system simply refuses to treat a person’s orientation or gender identity as something requiring diagnosis or correction in the first place.
There has also been movement at the supranational level. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution in early 2026 urging member states to ban conversion practices, and the question of an EU-wide approach has been on the table. The direction of travel, outside the United States at least, is fairly clear.
The United Kingdom is a useful case study in how slowly this can move even when the political will is stated. After years of promises, the UK government published a draft trans-inclusive Conversion Practices Bill for England and Wales in 2026. It sets a criminal threshold for abusive conversion conduct that seriously harms a victim, while carving out space for legitimate healthcare and honest conversations about identity.
Important caveat: a draft bill is not a law. It still has to go through scrutiny and the legislative process, and campaigners who have been pushing for this for years are watching closely to make sure it does not get watered down or quietly shelved again. Progress, but not a finish line.
Behind almost every conversion therapy ban is survivor advocacy — people who lived through these programs and decided no one else should have to. Their testimony is often what moves a hesitant lawmaker, because it is one thing to read a study and another to hear someone describe what it did to them as a fifteen-year-old.
That advocacy is also why the medical and legal arguments stay grounded. Survivors have consistently pushed back on the framing that conversion therapy is a free-expression issue or a parental-rights issue, insisting instead that it is a harm issue. When the conversation drifts toward abstraction, they pull it back to the actual stakes for actual kids.
Organizations focused on LGBTQ youth protection — crisis services, legal groups, and advocacy coalitions — have leaned hard into this work, and they tend to be the most reliable sources when the law is in flux. The Trevor Project, for instance, has tracked the legal fights closely and offers plain-language explanations of what court decisions actually mean for young people on the ground (see their explainer here).
The honest read on conversion therapy bans in 2026 is two truths at once. The momentum, globally and across most of the U.S., has been toward protection, built on a medical consensus that is not actually controversial among experts. And at the same time, that protection is being tested in U.S. courts in ways that make it less settled than it felt a couple of years ago.
If you live somewhere with a ban, it probably still stands, though the details may have shifted. If you are a parent, a survivor, an ally, or a queer kid trying to figure out whether you are safe, the most useful move is to check a current, credible tracker rather than trusting a number you half-remember from a headline. The map is real, and it is worth knowing yours.
None of this is settled history yet. It is happening right now, which means the people who keep showing up — the survivors, the doctors, the advocates, the voters — are still the ones writing how it ends.
As of 2026, more than half of U.S. states offer some protection. Roughly two dozen states plus Washington, D.C. fully prohibit licensed providers from practicing conversion therapy on minors, with several more states and territories enforcing partial restrictions. Because recent court decisions have changed enforcement in some places, it is best to check a current tracker like the Movement Advancement Project for your specific state.
No. In Chiles v. Salazar, decided March 31, 2026, the Court ruled 8–1 that Colorado’s ban must be evaluated under strict scrutiny because, as applied to talk therapy, it regulates speech by viewpoint. It did not strike the law down, and it noted that bans on more coercive practices remain constitutional. The case was sent back to the lower courts, and Colorado amended its law in response.
A growing number do. Countries with national bans include Canada, France, Germany, Malta, New Zealand, Iceland, and Spain, with Norway, Portugal, and Mexico adding bans in 2024. The exact scope varies — some bans apply to everyone, others only to medical professionals. The United Kingdom published a draft trans-inclusive bill in 2026, though it has not yet become law.
Because the evidence says it does not work and can cause real harm. Major bodies including the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have rejected conversion therapy as ineffective and potentially harmful, citing links to increased distress, depression, and suicidal ideation, particularly in LGBTQ youth.
Usually not directly. Most U.S. state bans apply to licensed mental health professionals and target conversion therapy as professional misconduct. Unlicensed religious counseling and clergy typically fall outside these specific laws, which is one reason survivor advocates argue that licensed-provider bans, while important, do not reach every setting where these practices still occur.
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