Michigan ends restriction on Catholic counselors who treat kids with gender dysphoria
A federal court order issued July 31 allows Catholic Charities counselors in Michigan to continue providing talk therapy to children with gender dysphoria without fear of enforcement of the state's conversion therapy ban. The order stems from a lawsuit filed by a Catholic Charities affiliate against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, arguing that the ban conflicts with Catholic teachings on gender identity and violates counselors' First Amendment rights. Michigan officials agreed not to enforce the ban against counselors whose treatment consists solely of talking, making the order permanent and immediately effective. The decision follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Colorado that similar bans violate First Amendment protections, prompting Michigan to adjust its enforcement approach.
about 2 months ago
Michigan’s federal court has permanently blocked the state from enforcing its “conversion‑therapy” ban against Catholic Charities counselors who provide talk‑therapy to children experiencing gender dysphoria, allowing those counselors to continue their services without fear of state sanctions. 1
In 2023 Michigan enacted a law prohibiting “conversion therapy,” defining it as any practice that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to alter gender expression. The statute permits counselors to offer “acceptance, support, or understanding” of a child’s self‑identified gender, but it requires affirming that the child’s gender identity may differ from their biological sex. 1
Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee, and Hillsdale Counties sued Governor Gretchen Whitmer and other officials, arguing the law forced them to contradict Catholic teaching on gender. On July 31, a federal judge issued a stipulated order that the state will not enforce the ban on any counselor whose treatment consists solely of “talk therapy,” citing a violation of First Amendment free‑speech rights. The order is permanent and took effect upon Judge Jane M. Beckering’s signature. 1
The Catholic Charities affiliate was represented by the Becket Fund, which called the decision “a major victory for children, counselors, and common sense.” The court’s reasoning aligns with the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 8‑1 ruling that Colorado’s similar ban infringed on counselors’ speech rights. The Vatican’s Catechism and the 2019 document Male and Female He Created Them affirm that sexual identity is rooted in biological nature, a stance the counselors say the Michigan law contradicts. 1
Michigan Attorney General Kimberly Bush expressed disappointment, warning of potential risks to children’s safety. Governor Whitmer’s office also voiced regret, describing the order as a setback for LGBTQ+ protections while reaffirming the governor’s commitment to safeguarding LGBTQ+ youth. 1
The decision follows Oregon’s licensing board’s withdrawal of disciplinary actions against Catholic counselors, also citing the Supreme Court’s Colorado ruling. Together, these developments signal growing legal challenges to state bans on conversion‑therapy‑type counseling, especially where religious freedom claims are invoked. 1*
How does the Catholic Church interpret gender identity?
The Catholic Church teaches that human dignity is equal for every person and that God created human beings as male and female with a meaningful sexual identity. In this framework, “gender identity” claims are examined in light of the Church’s anthropology: the Church accepts a person’s lived experience of identity, but it rejects “gender theory” when it separates “gender” from the bodily sex God created and treats sex as something that can be discarded or freely chosen apart from the created human person.
Some Church documents distinguish terms like this:
The difficulty, according to the Church, is not always the use of these terms, but when sex and gender are “separated.”
The Congregation for Catholic Education describes the “problem” as separating sex from gender, which it says becomes the root of ideas where identity is treated as radically autonomous—including the notion of choosing a gender that does not correspond to biological sex.
Catholic teaching grounds sexual identity in creation:
So, in the Church’s interpretation, sexual identity is not treated as a social convention that can be redefined at will; it is tied to how the human person exists in creation.
The Church repeatedly critiques “gender theory” (as summarized in ecclesial documents) when it:
Pope Francis summarizes the Church’s concern that the proposal to eliminate sexual difference would not protect dignity but instead would make the sexual distinctiveness “irrelevant” to human development and relationships—calling the result an “utopia of the ‘neuter.’”
One particularly important line in Catholic teaching is that biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (“gender”) can be distinguished but not separated.
This means the Church is not necessarily denying that culture shapes roles and expressions. Rather, it argues that the human person is not reducible to cultural negotiation of identity and that the created sexual difference cannot be treated as detachable from what a person is.
The Church’s critique is not only theoretical; it connects the anthropology of sex/gender to social and familial realities:
In Catholic interpretation, “gender identity” cannot be treated as independent from the created reality of being male or female. The Church insists that each person should acknowledge and accept his or her sexual identity, because sexual difference is constitutive of human identity and ordered toward the goods of human communion, love, and—at the social level—the family.
At the same time, the Church’s language leaves room for distinguishing cultural expressions/roles from what it views as the deeper truth of sex as part of creation—captured in the formula: distinguish but not separate.