In Response to Chiles v. Salazar

"[B]ecause the majority plays with fire in this case, I fear that the people of this country will get burned.” Chiles v. Salazar, 607 U.S. ___ (2026) (Jackson, J., dissenting).

On March 31, 2026, Trans Day of Visibility, the United States Supreme Court issued yet another blow to the LGBTQIA+ community and to the ability of states to legislate certain protections for LGBTQIA+ people. In an 8-1 ruling, the Court held that Colorado’s ban on conversion “therapy” impermissibly imposes content-based restrictions on providers’ First Amendment speech rights that are not viewpoint neutral. We expect that this decision will reverberate through many states with similar “conversion therapy bans” on the books, including New Jersey.

But now is not the time for legal analysis. Now is the time to uplift the many people in our beautiful state and in our country who have endured these heinous “treatments”, some of whom survived and some of whom, tragically, did not. As a community, we will continue to name conversion “therapy,” the misnomer that it is, for what it is and has always been: a weaponization of purported medicine with the goal of erasing LGBTQIA+ people. 

We, as a collective of LGBTQIA+ legal professionals and allies, stand firmly in our commitment to oppose any and all efforts to disappear, erase, and render our community invisible. We cannot be forgotten if we choose to remember. We cannot be erased if we choose to be heard. We cannot be made invisible if we choose to see. Our community has always maintained a long memory for what we and our forebears have endured in the past and will use that memory to fuel us to rage against the dying of the light.

The timing of this decision is significant, both symbolically and practically. Today is Trans Day of Visibility—a day established to celebrate the joy of being able to live authentically as oneself in the manner in which one truly and deeply identifies. Unfortunately, over the last few years, it has become increasingly difficult for many trans people to live visibly in a world that literally seeks to eradicate them. This decision seems purposely timed to deny us our joy and to amplify the efforts to eliminate us.  

The current Supreme Court term is ongoing, and the Court is poised, as it already has, to issue more opinions that will inflict immeasurable harm on our community. But for the time being, we know that Justice Jackson’s prediction that “the people of this country will get burned” is undoubtedly true. The impact of this decision will not be contained to Colorado and may very well be felt in New Jersey in short order. We hope you will join us as we choose, today and every day, not to go gently into that good night.

In solidarity,

Board of Directors, Q Law NJ, Inc.