Michigan’s Ban Backfired - 9/2/26

The state of Michigan admitted one of its LGBT laws is unconstitutional. A Michigan law, which took effect in February 2024, prohibited mental health professionals from counseling minors against changing their sexual orientation while allowing them to support a minor's so-called gender transition. Catholics in Michigan immediately sued, and with the help of the religious liberty group Beckett, they scored a victory for children and families. Because of several recent Supreme Court victories, the state of Michigan agreed to a permanent court order preventing the state from penalizing counselors for providing therapy that does not affirm a child's so-called gender identity.

Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at Beckett and lead attorney for the counselors, welcomed the order. Kids who are hurting deserve compassion, he said, not a one-way ticket to harmful drugs, hormones, and surgery. Now, counselors can offer compassionate counseling without fearing that state bureaucrats... Meanwhile, over at the Loop, Cardinal Pizzabala, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, says the West Bank is a lawless land, and he urges diplomacy as the only peaceful way to resolve the conflict. Today is the Feast of the Holy September Martyrs, a group of 191 Catholic clergy and religious who were massacred in Paris on September 2nd and 3rd, 1792, during the godless and bloody French Revolution.

I'm Josh Mercer. Editor of The Loop, taking you behind the headlines. Go to zeal.co for the rest of today's loop, and while you're at it, subscribe to get The Loop in your inbox every morning. Again, that's zeal.co.