Bad Science Debunked Again . . .

Mar 14, 2025

The studies being used to ban Christian change counseling are built on a carefully constructed tower of lies, published in medical journals subject to the whims of LGBTQ censorship committees. But that house of cards is about to come crumbling down with a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Once again, Liberty Counsel pioneered this litigation beginning in 2012. Our never-give-up attitude is the reason we are the verge of a major shift. 

Help Liberty Counsel END Christian change counseling bans! We need your help to fight this battle before the Supreme Court. Every donation made to our legal fund today will be DOUBLED in impact by a special Challenge Grant. Please, give generously. 

More than 100 cities and states have unlawfully banned Christian change counseling, largely as a result of “bad science” studies. Liberty Counsel has overturned 23 of these bans, but 87 bans are still active. There is a conflict in the Courts of Appeals thanks to two of our wins, so this fall the U.S. Supreme Court will decide once and for all if government can ban a specific type of counseling simply because the LGBTQ crowd can’t handle the truth.

Liberty Counsel filed a brief asking the High Court to take the case. Now we will file our brief on the merits of the case.

In 2020, the American Journal of Public Health published a study that claimed Christian change counseling increased suicide rates among sexual minorities. Funded by the Williams Institute, a UCLA think tank focused on “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy,” and the study argued that LGBTQ people who underwent change counseling were twice as likely to commit suicide.

In 2009, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued a report acknowledging there was no evidence of harm to minors, but nevertheless, the report was sympathetic to the LGBTQ agenda. But then, in 2021 after the release of the Williams Institute study, the ideologically driven APA issued a resolution recommending that change counsel be banned. Joe Biden responded by issuing Executive Order 14065, which sought to end Christian change counseling not only in the U.S. but also worldwide.

But the study was a lie. 

A team of researchers at Catholic University of America, led by Paul Sullins, Ph.D., professor of sociology, recently reviewed the Williams Institute study along with three of the other most cited anti-change counseling studies and found glaring problems with their conclusions. Grievous errors in logic, deceptively reported data, and flawed conclusions littered the pro-LGBTQ research, particularly in the Williams Institute study. 

Dr. Sullins and his researchers found that the pool of people the Williams Institute and others “studied” were all people who currently identified as active participants in an LGBTQ lifestyle. The effect, according to Sullins, was the same as if researchers had only polled divorced people about the effectiveness of marriage counseling. 

Worse yet, Sullins and his colleagues discovered that the Williams Institute and similar studies failed to take into account people who were severely depressed and suicidal before attempting change counseling. This “backward logic,” as Sullivan calls it, is the equivalent of “banning anti-hypertension medications because it found that most persons using the medication have also previously had high blood pressure.” 

When Sullins and his researchers corrected for this error, they found that the Williams Institute study actually proved that Christian change counseling reduced suicidal ideation and actions.

Don’t let the LGBTQ silence Christian counselors and patients! Fund our latest filing with the U.S. Supreme Court!

In addition to reviewing those studies, Sullins and his team conducted their own study analyzing the experience of people who had undergone Christian change counseling. This was based on rigorous research practices designed to eliminate bias. That study found that people who had participated in Christian change counseling were actually less suicidal, with a 9-1 ratio of positive results from this talk therapy. 

But because the findings contradicted the LGBTQ-enforced ideology, they had an almost impossible time getting the study published in the U.S. 

It turns out that the APA has a committee staffed entirely by LGBTQ activists who actively censor any study they believe has a “heterosexist” bias. Because the APA manages or influences nearly every psychological journal in the U.S., only pro-LGBTQ studies wind up getting published — even when those studies are demonstrably false. 

“When I submit a study that does not explicitly advocate gay-activist goals, it is labeled “heteronormative” by most U.S. journals and rejected before being sent to peer review,” says Dr. Sullins. “The same is true for a study on abortion that might show harm for women or support the idea that the natural family is better for children than single or divorced parents.”

Christian change counselors are like a GPS navigation system. The client tells the counselor where he or she wants to go, and the counselor helps navigate the traffic to reach the destination. 

But change counseling bans erect a permanent roadblock preventing people from reaching their desired destination. Without such counseling, many will remain stuck in unwanted attractions and gender confusion.

Counseling clients, as well as mental health counselors, have a First Amendment right to religious freedom and free speech. By law, the government may not dictate what free people believe or what they choose to discuss. But the same LGBTQ mafia that is censoring science that contradicts their agenda is also working to eliminate the rights of people who desperately want to escape the LGBTQ prison.  

Liberty Counsel’s latest Supreme Court brief will seek to END the LGBTQ‘s attempts to ban Christian change counseling. But we cannot do this important work without YOU, the faithful Liberty Counsel supporter. Please consider making a generous one-time gift or even a small recurring monthly gift to fund our legal work. Every donation made today will be DOUBLED in impact by a special Challenge Grant.

And please, pray for the young men and women struggling to escape the LGBTQ’s transgender trap. 



P.S. Join us for our New Birth of Freedom Gala on April 5 in Orlando, Florida. Our keynote speaker is Congressman Byron Donalds, and his wife, Erika Donalds. Visit LC.org/Gala2025 to learn more. 

Liberty Counsel advances religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the family through litigation and education. We depend on your support, which enables us to represent people at no cost. Click here to GIVE NOW.
Sources:

“Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals.” The Federal Register, June 21, 2022. Federalregister.gov/documents/2022/06/21/2022-13391/advancing-equality-for-lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer-and-intersex-individuals.  

“APA RESOLUTION on Sexual Orientation Change Efforts.” American Psychological Association, February 2021. APA.org/about/policy/resolution-sexual-orientation-change-efforts.pdf. 

Blosnich, John R., Emmett R. Henderson, Robert W. S. Coulter, Jeremy T. Goldbach, and Ilan H. Meyer. “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Suicide Ideation and Attempt among Sexual Minority Adults, United States, 2016–2018.” American Journal of Public Health, 110 (7): 1024–30. June 10, 2020.  https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2020.305637. 

‌Desmond, Joan Frawley. “Catholic University of America Professor Pushes Back against ‘Conversion Therapy’ Studies.” National Catholic Register, March 27, 2023. NCRegister.com/interview/catholic-university-of-america-professor-pushes-back-against-reparative-therapy-studies.

“LGB People Who Have Undergone Conversion Therapy Almost Twice as Likely to Attempt Suicide.” UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, June 15, 2020. Williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/lgb-suicide-ct-press-release/. 
‌ 

Sullins, D.P. Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Do Not Increase Suicide: Correcting a False Research Narrative. Arch Sex Behav 51, 3377–3393 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-022-02408-2. 


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