Prairie Village and Roeland Park rewrote their conversion therapy bans rather than repeal them, defying a demand from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach.

Both city councils voted on the amended ordinances Sept. 21, exactly 60 days after Kobach sent letters to each city's mayor ordering them to scrap the bans. The Roeland Park City Council approved its changes 8-0 on its consent agenda, as first reported by the Johnson County Post. Councilmember Tom Madigan was absent. The Prairie Village City Council voted 8-3, with Councilmembers Terry O'Toole, Nick Reddell and Andy Logan opposed. Councilmember Inga Selders was absent.

The rewrites follow a legal strategy Colorado pioneered after the U.S. Supreme Court's 8-1 ruling in Chiles v. Salazar on March 31. In that case, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that Colorado's original ban on conversion therapy regulated speech based on viewpoint and that lower courts failed to apply strict enough First Amendment scrutiny.

Kobach cited the ruling in his July 23 letters, first reported by the Johnson County Post, arguing the cities' bans allowed counseling for people transitioning genders but not the reverse. He gave each city 60 days to confirm it had repealed its ban.

The cities chose a different path.

Both amended ordinances now ban any counseling that "seeks to direct a patient toward a predetermined sexual orientation or gender identity outcome … regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity the patient is directed toward," according to city documents reported by the Johnson County Post. Counseling that does not push a patient toward any predetermined outcome remains permitted.

The shift mirrors Colorado's HB26-1322, which prohibits licensed mental health professionals from imposing any predetermined outcome on a minor, regardless of direction. Justice Elena Kagan's concurrence in Chiles v. Salazar had noted the case would have been closer had Colorado enacted a "content-based but viewpoint-neutral law."

Violators in either city face fines up to $1,000 and could lose their business license. No licensed conversion therapy practitioners are known to operate in Prairie Village or Roeland Park, according to the Johnson County Post.

Prairie Village City Attorney Alex Aggen told the city council at a Sept. 8 committee meeting that he believes the amended language complies with the Chiles v. Salazar decision. But he warned councilmembers on Sept. 22 that there is "effectively no certainty anything" the city passes will "ever not be challenged."

Both ordinances still cite findings from the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association that counseling aimed at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity is harmful and ineffective.

In a statement emailed to the Johnson County Post on Sept. 23, Kobach said the Chiles v. Salazar ruling made clear that local bans like those in Kansas also violated the First Amendment. Whether his office considers the viewpoint-neutral rewrites sufficient remains unclear.

Roeland Park adopted the first conversion therapy ban in Kansas in 2020. Prairie Village followed in 2021.

Lawrence, which received a similar demand letter from Kobach on July 23, had not voted on changes to its own ban as of Sept. 25. The Lawrence City Commission plans to discuss the issue at a meeting that has not been scheduled.