{"id":2586497,"date":"2026-04-02T11:21:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lib-legal-pundit-discovers-how-poisonous-bluesky-is-after-his-criticism-of-scotus-conversion-therapy-ruling-wasnt-woke-enough-for-radicals\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:27:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:27:45","slug":"lib-legal-pundit-discovers-how-poisonous-bluesky-is-after-his-criticism-of-scotus-conversion-therapy-ruling-wasnt-woke-enough-for-radicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lib-legal-pundit-discovers-how-poisonous-bluesky-is-after-his-criticism-of-scotus-conversion-therapy-ruling-wasnt-woke-enough-for-radicals\/","title":{"rendered":"Lib Legal Pundit Discovers How Poisonous Bluesky Is After His Criticism of SCOTUS &#8216;Conversion Therapy&#8217; Ruling Wasn&#8217;t Woke Enough for Radicals"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">42<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flib-legal-pundit-discovers-how-poisonous-bluesky-is-after-his-criticism-of-scotus-conversion-therapy-ruling-wasnt-woke-enough-for-radicals%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2586497&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The piece centers on Mark Joseph Stern\u2019s reporting about the Supreme Court\u2019s 8-1 ruling on Colorado\u2019s ban on talk therapy related to same-sex attraction or gender identity from a religious perspective. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority, joined by all justices accept Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, holding that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-in-2025-states-cant-ban-transing-kids-kbj-on-conversion-therapy-in-2026-only-states-can-regulate-medicine\/\" title=\"... ... in 2025: States Can&#039;t ... Transing Kids. KBJ on &#039;...&#039; in 2026: Only States Can Regulate Medicine\">law censors speech based<\/a> on viewpoint and must be reviewed under strict scrutiny; the Court remanded the case to the lower court for that analysis and did not declare the law unconstitutional on its face.<\/p>\n<p>The article also recounts Stern\u2019s critique of the decision, describing it as hypocrisy masquerading as principle, and notes his use of sources like Slate to argue his point. It then details a hostile backlash Stern faced on Bluesky, including vulgar replies, and his eventual decision to scale back his Supreme Court commentary on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>the piece uses this controversy to illustrate tensions in modern legal journalism, the nature of First Amendment protections for therapy-related speech, and the volatile dynamics of social media-driven backlash in political discourse.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_1)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Mark Joseph Stern is suitably woke.<\/p>\n<p>He writes for Slate. He&rsquo;s a legal analyst who uses the term &ldquo;conversion therapy&rdquo; when discussing any sort of therapy that might deal with someone&rsquo;s discomfort over same-sex desire or gender dysphoria from a religious perspective. He wrote an article titled, &ldquo;How in the World Was the Supreme Court&rsquo;s Awful Conversion Therapy Ruling 8&ndash;1?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He still managed to get pilloried on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/jd-vance-joins-lefty-x-competitor-bluesky-gets-banned-just-one-post\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bluesky<\/a>, the leftist alternative to X where they eat their own via increasingly impossible purity tests.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in case you missed this &ldquo;awful conversion therapy ruling,&rdquo; every justice aside from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-2025-states-cant-ban-transing-kids-kbj-conversion-therapy-2026-states-can-regulate-medicine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ketanji Brown Jackson<\/a> (natch) found in a Wednesday decision that a lower court did not apply appropriate scrutiny to a Colorado law that banned, among other things, talk therapy that might deal with people struggling with same-sex attraction or gender identity from a religiously orthodox perspective.<\/p>\n<p>Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor, challenged the 2019 statute on First Amendment grounds. Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said that the law &ldquo;censors speech based on viewpoint&rdquo; and that a lower court must apply strict scrutiny, or the most exacting constitutional standard, to examining the law and what it covers.<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"anyclipvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\tdocument.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() { \t\t\t\t\tfunction loadAnyclip() { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst container=document.getElementById(\"anyclipvideo\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!container) return;  \t\t\t\t\t\tconst script=document.createElement(\"script\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.src=\"https:\/\/player.anyclip.com\/anyclip-widget\/lre-widget\/prod\/v1\/src\/lre.js\"; \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.setAttribute(\"pubname\", \"westernjournalcom\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.setAttribute(\"widgetname\", \"001w000001jULVcAAO_M12924\");  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ append inside the container so player shows in correct spot \t\t\t\t\t\tcontainer.appendChild(script); \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\tfunction findPreviousParagraph(selector, x) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst targetElement=document.querySelector(selector); \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!targetElement) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Target element not found.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Get all <\/p>\n<p> elements in order as they appear in the document \t\t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphs=Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(\"p\"));  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the index of the last <\/p>\n<p> before the target element \t\t\t\t\t\tlet targetIndex=paragraphs.findIndex(p=> p.compareDocumentPosition(targetElement) & Node.DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING);  \t\t\t\t\t\tif (targetIndex===-1 || targetIndex <x) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Not enough paragraphs before the target element.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\treturn paragraphs[targetIndex - x]; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Set up IntersectionObserver \t\t\t\t\tfunction observeElement(element) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!element) return;  \t\t\t\t\t\tconst observer=new IntersectionObserver( \t\t\t\t\t\t\t(entries)=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tentries.forEach(entry=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tif (entry.isIntersecting) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(\"Paragraph is now visible:\", entry.target.textContent.trim()); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tloadAnyclip(); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.disconnect(); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t}, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t{ threshold: 0.5 } \/\/ Adjust threshold as needed \t\t\t\t\t\t);  \t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.observe(element); \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the 1st paragraph before #anyclipvideo and observe it \t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphToObserve=findPreviousParagraph(\"#anyclipvideo\", 2); \t\t\t\t\tobserveElement(paragraphToObserve); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same,&rdquo; Gorsuch <a href=\"https:\/\/prod-i.a.dj.com\/public\/resources\/documents\/Supreme-Court-conversion-therapy-case-2026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Stern, in his write-up of the case in <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-awful-conversion-therapy-kagan-sotomayor-why.html#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Slate<\/a>, called the decision &ldquo;profound hypocrisy masquerading as principle,&rdquo; using a circular appeal to authority, among other arguments.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>Almost 30 states have curbed or outlawed &ldquo;therapy&rdquo; that seeks to change minors&rsquo; sexual orientation or gender identity&mdash;that is, to make them stop being gay, bisexual, or transgender. These measures take the form of professional licensure rules, subjecting therapists to fines (and eventually loss of license) if they try to &ldquo;turn&rdquo; an LGBTQ+ minor straight or cisgender. Nonprofessional counselors, including family and clergy, can still engage in this conduct, as can professional counselors outside of their paid practice. Every major American medical association to consider this issue has come out in opposition to &ldquo;conversion therapy&rdquo; for youth and endorsed its prohibition. &hellip;&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sided against Colorado, reversing the appeals court&rsquo;s decision. Writing for every justice but Jackson, Gorsuch declared that Chiles&rsquo; talk therapy is &ldquo;the quintessential form of protected speech.&rdquo; He rejected the state&rsquo;s argument that speech carries fewer First Amendment protections when delivered as a medical treatment. Chiles&rsquo; therapy is not conduct at all, Gorsuch wrote, but pure &ldquo;expression.&rdquo; And Colorado&rsquo;s law censors that expression &ldquo;based on viewpoint,&rdquo; allowing her to affirm LGBTQ+ patients&rsquo; identities but not to critique or reject them. Thus, the state &ldquo;seeks to silence a viewpoint she wishes to express.&rdquo; This kind of &ldquo;viewpoint discrimination,&rdquo; Gorsuch concluded, is &ldquo;presumptively unconstitutional,&rdquo; and must survive strict scrutiny, meaning it is &ldquo;narrowly tailored to serve compelling state interests.&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>However, he did note that Gorsuch did not &rdquo; declare that Colorado&rsquo;s law does not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/porn-advocates-sue-indiana-ag-over-law-shielding-minors-from-online-filth\/\" title=\"Porn Advocates File ...suit Against Indiana AG to Challenge ... Protecting Minors from Explicit Online Content\">pass strict scrutiny<\/a> and therefore violates the First Amendment&rdquo; but &ldquo;walked right up to that point, he stepped back, and sent the case back down to the appeals court, directing it to apply the test instead. He strongly implied that the Colorado ban, and others like it, would not survive this review &lsquo;as applied&rsquo; to talk therapy. But he left the question open for the appeals court to answer.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>And that&rsquo;s where his problem began on Bluesky. See, he also pointed this out on the left-bubble app: &ldquo;This decision applies only to talk therapy, not forms of &lsquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-to-review-colorado-conversion-therapy-ban-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Supreme Court to review Colorado \u2018...\u2019 ... - Washington Examiner\">conversion therapy&#038;rsquo<\/a>; that involve physical interventions (which are really abuse),&rdquo; he <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/mjsdc.bsky.social\/post\/3mieefk62m22j\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a>. &ldquo;It does not strike down Colorado&rsquo;s law on its face. Actually, it does not invalidate anything&mdash;it just holds that this kind of law is subject to strict scrutiny.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Which was true. And the reactions were, uh, less than stellar to the truth:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>WARNING: The following posts contain vulgar language that some readers will find offensive.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The rage to which Mark Joseph Stern was subjected over his characterization of various forms of conversion therapy: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BOj8RTwJCc\">pic.twitter.com\/BOj8RTwJCc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/benryanwriter\/status\/2039064265055670602?\">March 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As someone who went through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gorsuch-acb-grill-colorado-on-gender-therapy-laws\/\" title=\"..., ACB Grill Colorado On Gender ... ...s\">conversion talk therapy<\/a> I&rsquo;d kindly like to show Mark to the nearest cliff&rsquo;s edge,&rdquo; wrote one user.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Mark out here thinks that my parents abusing, raping, and killing me in the process of &lsquo;their talking&rsquo; is fine because freeze peach or some liberal s***,&rdquo; said another, who apparently thinks talking can kill and\/or rape you.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Mark, &lsquo;really abuse&rsquo; is gonna be all your [sic] known for now. Your epitaph,&rdquo; one of the nicer (if not entirely grammatically correct) responses read.<\/p>\n<p>Stern tried to defend himself, which is seldom a good decision with this crowd:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mark Joseph Stern defends himself: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/izijC125lM\">pic.twitter.com\/izijC125lM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/benryanwriter\/status\/2039064283066040420?\">March 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But he finally conceded that the woke rabblement had won.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;FYI: I am going to stop summarizing Supreme Court decisions on here as they come down. One comment has been plucked out of context of all my reporting, misread, and used as the basis of a mean-spirited pile-on. I am not going to subject myself to this. If this was your goal, then congratulations,&rdquo; he <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/mjsdc.bsky.social\/post\/3miesanldck22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mark Joseph Stern, who reports on legal news for Slate through a strictly liberal lens, routinely weighing in that liberal decisions are invariably correct, has nevertheless been subjected to brutal purity-test pile-ons on Bluesky and has resolved to dial back his presence there. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7MCP9bAnI1\">pic.twitter.com\/7MCP9bAnI1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/benryanwriter\/status\/2039064253408112761?\">March 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>NARRATOR: &ldquo;That was, in fact, their goal.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>You see, Bluesky is not about thoughtful discussion among a left-leaning crowd. It&rsquo;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >crazy 30-man pro-wrestling free-<\/a>for-all, and the craziest heel always wins. Stern, for all his daftness, is not that crazy &mdash; not, at least, by the standards of Bluesky, which chases off anyone who won&rsquo;t join the primal fray or appease it.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/libs-said-leaving-twitter-elon-took-guess-worked\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elon Musk taking over Twitter<\/a> was the real crisis in short-form political journalism on social media. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/sure,_Jan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sure, Jan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a paraphrase of the main ideas in the text you shared:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The piece centers on Mark Joseph Stern of Slate, described as very liberal. It notes his use of the term \u201cconversion therapy\u201d when talking about therapy that addresses someone\u2019s discomfort with same-sex desire or gender dysphoria from a religious viewpoint. It mentions his Slate article titled \u201cHow in the World Was the Supreme Court\u2019s Awful Conversion Therapy Ruling 8-1?\u201d and notes that he faced harsh backlash on Bluesky, a left-leaning platform.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The legal focus is a Supreme Court ruling from a recent Wednesday, with all justices except Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in the majority. The Court held that a Colorado law, passed in 2019, bans certain forms of talk therapy aimed at changing a minor\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity when delivered from a religiously orthodox perspective. Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor, had challenged the law on First Amendment grounds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch argued that the Colorado law \u201ccensors speech based on viewpoint\u201d and that the lower court should apply strict scrutiny to evaluate the law\u2019s reach. In essence, the decision treated Chiles\u2019 therapy as protected speech, not conduct, and said the state\u2019s policy discriminates by favoring certain viewpoints over others.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The ruling also noted that the decision does not automatically strike down the Colorado statute in all its applications. It suggests the law may not survive strict scrutiny when applied to talk therapy, but it sent the case back to the appeals court for that precise analysis. The consensus was that the line of cases remains unresolved in full, and the specific law\u2019s fate depended on how the lower court would apply strict scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The author frames Stern as having described the ruling as hypocritical and principled in a circular way, using authority claims to argue against the decision. The piece notes that more than 30 states have restricted or prohibited conversion therapy for minors, though those measures generally limit licensed professional conduct and still permit other forms of counseling outside professional practice. Major medical associations have opposed youth-focused conversion therapy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The court\u2019s Tuesday decision reversed an appeals court ruling in favor of Colorado. Gorsuch argued that talk therapy falls under protected speech and rejected the state\u2019s claim that speech tied to medical treatment has fewer First Amendment protections. The majority stressed that the Colorado law targets the content and viewpoint of speech, which raises constitutional concerns. The court remanded to the appeals court to apply strict scrutiny, leaving open the possibility that the law could be found unconstitutional as applied.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The piece then describes what happened on Bluesky: Stern\u2019s interpretations were met with harsh, sometimes vulgar, pushback. Some users urged extreme actions in response to his reporting. Stern initially defended himself but eventually conceded that the intense backlash had an impact, announcing he would stop summarizing Supreme Court decisions on Bluesky to avoid being taken out of context or subjected to pile-ons.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; A broader meta-note suggests Bluesky operates more like a noisy, performative arena than a place for thoughtful discussion, with purity tests and ruthless disagreements dominating. The piece contrasts this with Musk\u2019s takeover of Twitter, implying that the real challenge to political journalism on short-form platforms was perhaps more about platform culture than the content itself<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2586498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2188212973-2-e1775135539468.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[25421,76878,51639,6994,5558],"class_list":["post-2586497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-bluesky","tag-conversion-therapy-2","tag-law-2","tag-scotus","tag-woke"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2188212973-2-e1775135539468.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2586497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2586501,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586497\/revisions\/2586501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2586498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2586497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2586497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2586497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}