This Catholic Therapist Says a New Michigan Law Would REQUIRE Her to Help Confused Children ‘Transition’

A Catholic therapist in Michigan said that a new law bars therapists from offering compassionate, professional care for children with gender confusion and requires them to assist with gender “transition,” which could render them permanently sterile and cause other health problems.

Michigan lawmakers intended to outlaw what it considers conversion therapy. But these counselors seek to use talk therapy to determine the underlying causes of gender confusion in individual clients, which may help them heal and accept their bodies.

A Catholic therapist named Emily McJones opened a counseling practice called Little Flower Counseling in Lansing, Michigan, after counseling suicidal teens for years. According to Becket Law, she “integrates evidence-based psychotherapy techniques with her religious beliefs, including the belief that God made human beings male or female.”

Some of the people McJones counsels are confused about their bodies. She wanted them to address underlying causes and “allow them to accept their bodies without resorting to irreversible life-altering medical intervention.”

But in Michigan, counselors like McJones must “affirm” their clients’ confusion and turn to radical drugs and mutilating surgery.

In their lawsuit against the state, McJones and and Catholic Charities claim that the law violates their freedom of speech, discriminating against them based on content and viewpoint. The plaintiffs called the law an unreasonable restriction on speech and the right to receive information.

The law also violates the First Amendment’s free exercise of religion. McJones and Catholic Charities argue that the law is not neutral or generally applied, and it violates the rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children.

“The Constitution doesn’t let the government dictate what people can and can’t say—especially when the government is cutting off vulnerable children and families from counseling they desperately want to receive,” said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket Law.

Photo credit: Becket Law