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Two Johnson County cities are currently reviewing their conversion therapy bans after receiving a letter from the Office of the Attorney General demanding a repeal.
Last week, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent letters to the cities of Prairie Village and Roeland Park demanding they each repeal the conversion therapy bans the cities have had on the books for years. The city of Lawrence also received a letter.
Roeland Park became the first city in Kansas with a conversion therapy ban in 2020. Prairie Village followed a year later with their own conversion therapy ban.
In the letters to each of the cities, Kobach cites a 2026 U.S. Supreme Court case, Chiles v. Salazar.
The Supreme Court ruled in that recent case that a Colorado conversion therapy ban violated the First Amendment because it regulated speech based on content and viewpoint, according to the University of of Michigan Law School.
Now, the two northeastern Johnson County cities say they are reviewing the letters from Kobach.
The letters demand cities respond within 60 days
On July 23, Kobach sent two identical letters to the mayors of the cities of Prairie Village and Roeland Park.
The city of Lawrence’s letter was substantially the same as the other two, though it has an additional paragraph regarding a ban of the phrase “conversion therapy.”
Addressing the respective mayors of each city, Kobach gave all three cities 60 days to alert his office of whether their city has repealed its conversion therapy ban to “bring the City back into compliance with the Constitution.”
“It has come to my attention that the City of Roeland Park has an ordinance that prohibits health professionals from engaging in so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ including therapy that involves only speech,” Kobach’s letter to the city of Roeland Park begins.
Kobach then details the Supreme Court’s 2026 ruling in Chiles v. Salazar, stating that it “held the law violated the First Amendment because it proscribed what views a therapist may and may not express.”
The conversion therapy ban on the books in each of the cities “seeks to control speech in a nearly identical way,” Kobach said in the letters. The cities’ ordinances are also inapplicable to counseling for people who are transitioning genders, Kobach noted.
“In other words, only one viewpoint is allowed to be expressed,” Kobach said, regarding the cities’ conversion therapy bans. “Thus, the ordinance engages in viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.”
See the letters in their entirety in the embedded document below, starting with each of the three cities in alphabetical order:
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Open in new tab The cities’ conversion therapy bans are 5+ years old
In 2020, Roeland Park adopted the first conversion therapy ban in the state of Kansas.
The ban was intended to protect minors from “the serious harms and risks caused by” conversion therapy, according to city documents at that time.
Several LGBTQ rights advocates spoke in favor of a conversion therapy ban when Roeland Park discussed it, with some sharing their experiences undergoing conversion therapy as minors.
One speaker told the Roeland Park City Council in June 2020, when the ban was adopted, that their experience with conversion therapy included electroshock therapy and physical, mental and emotional abuse.
Prairie Village started discussing a conversion therapy ban more than a year after Roeland Park adopted its ban.
At the time, the city council discussed whether it was “virtue signaling” since there were no known licensed practitioners in Prairie Village (or in Roeland Park) who offered conversion therapy services.
Prairie Village, Roeland Park still reviewing letters
Both Prairie Village and Roeland Park city staff are reviewing Kobach’s letter as of Friday.
In a Thursday afternoon email statement to the Post, Prairie Village City Administrator Wes Jordan said the city learned about Kobach’s letter “today from the media.”
“We are really not in a position to provide comment until we have had a chance to review the letter and discuss with legal counsel,” Jordan said.
Prairie Village Mayor Eric Mikkelson told the Post in a texted statement on Friday that the city may adjust its ban “if necessary.”
“We will review and, if necessary, adjust to ensure that all of our city laws remain in full compliance with state and federal law, including the Constitution,” Mikkelson said.
Roeland Park is taking the same approach.
“We have received the letter and have sent it to our city attorney to review,” Assistant City Administrator Jennifer Jones-Lacy said in a Friday statement to the Post. “We have nothing further to add at this time.”
Roeland Park Mayor Michael Poppa told the Post via text on Friday that the city’s legal team is reviewing the letter, and the city has no comment at this time.
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