The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has found a state ban on licensed therapists offering ex-gay "therapy" to be constitutional. http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/a30d58ca60ba4c20a4dda80f7d80e31d/US-Gay-Therapy-Ban They found that the ban does not limit the therapists freedom of speak as was contended: "the court panel held that California has the power to prohibit licensed mental health providers from administering therapies deemed harmful, and the fact that speech may be used to carry out those therapies does not turn such bans into prohibitions of speech." Pastors and lay counselors are not affected by the ban as long as "sexual orientation change efforts" are presented as a kind of "faith healing" and not a legitimate medicine. Medical and social science organisations around the world have denounced such practices as ineffective at best and considerably harmful at worst.
