In an article published this week in Public Discourse, RFI’s Nathan Berkeley writes about a Michigan law, enacted in 2023 and being litigated now, that threatens religious freedom principally because it gets human nature wrong. A group of Catholic therapists in Michigan filed a case in federal court last month “to protect their ability to provide compassionate, professional counseling to children experiencing discomfort with their biological sex.” They are now banned “from helping children talk through the underlying causes of their gender confusion,” and instead are mandated “to assist children with a ‘gender transition’—a regime of puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries designed to make their bodies resemble the opposite sex.”

Berkeley concludes, “The meaning of ‘conversion therapy’ that Michigan law now bans does not simply place some technical limit on those who work in the mental health profession. It instead validates and mandates a harmful conception of human nature and identity that is antithetical to the convictions of countless religious professionals who faithfully serve in this space.”

Read the full article: “The Michigan Conversion Therapy Ban Violates Human Nature and Religious Freedom.“