KC's conversion therapy ban is gone, for now
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Mayor Quinton Lucas says his team is drafting language to replace Kansas City's ban on conversion therapy for minors, which the City Council struck down last week.
Why it matters: The ban shielded kids from a practice the American Academy of Pediatrics calls "unsuccessful" and "deleterious." LGBTQ+ youth subjected to it are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide, per the Trevor Project.
Catch up quick: In February 2025, two licensed counselors represented by a Christian legal group joined Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in suing KC and Jackson County over their conversion therapy bans, saying the laws violated their free speech.
- A federal judge denied their request to block the bans, but the counselors appealed.
- But on March 31, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Chiles v. Salazar that a nearly identical Colorado ban violates the First Amendment.
How it works: The court ruled Colorado's law was unconstitutional because it told counselors they could affirm a kid's gender identity but couldn't try to change it.
- Jackson County's attorneys have since called the Colorado law "functionally identical" to the KC and Jackson County bans.
- A new version could survive, the court said, if it bans counselors from steering kids toward any predetermined outcome, whether that's changing or affirming an identity.
State of play: The council voted 7-5 to repeal KC's ban, with the majority saying continuing to fight the appeal could set a worse precedent for other LGBTQ+ protections.
- The same vote stripped penalties for businesses that refuse to use someone's stated pronouns, a provision a federal judge had already flagged as likely unconstitutional.
- Jackson County's 2023 ban is still in place and still being enforced.
What they're saying: Mayor Quinton Lucas, who championed the original ban in 2019 and voted to repeal it last week, tells Axios the legal picture is murkier now.
- "Previously, we had a clear ordinance that banned that practice. We do still have on the books an ordinance that bans discriminatory behavior based upon sexual orientation," Lucas says. "So it would be a slightly more complex thing to prove."
The other side: Two of the five council members who voted no, Eric Bunch and Andrea Bough, said they were voting "in protest" while acknowledging the legal pressure.
- District 6 Councilman Johnathan Duncan, who voted yes, later apologized on X, saying he'd made the wrong decision.
What's next: The federal appeals court heard arguments on the case this month and is still deciding.
- Lucas' team hasn't said when the new draft will be introduced, but he said it will be modeled on Colorado's recent rewrite.