In March 2018, the state of Washington passed Senate Bill 5722 into law. Senate Bill 5722, a law that restricts the practice of conversion therapy, is the state of Washinton’s response to the increasing number of professional psychotherapists in the area that has been practicing conversation therapy.

Brian Tingley prefers to call Senate Bill 5722 “counseling censorship law” on his lawsuit filed on May 13, 2021. Tingley — a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of Washington — has flagrantly accused the state of Washington of intervening and controlling his practice of un-founded and unverifiable, religion-based therapeutics.

Tingley’s erroneous claims that professionals should be allowed to continue practicing based on their differing interpretations of science became the core of his lawsuit’s argument. He claims that Washington’s Senate Bill 5722 intrudes on his professional right to help his clients “achieving comfort with a gender identity congruent with the client’s biological sex.”

In his May lawsuit, Tingley called on the Attorney General of Washington, Robert Ferguson; Secretary of Health, Dr. Umair Shah; and Assistant Secretary of Health, Kristin Person as the defendants of his wildly self-serving religiously inspired lawsuit.

Federal Judge Bryan Robert, on his ruling on August 30, 2021, dismissed Tingley’s claim. In his ruling, Judge Robert effortlessly destroys Tingley’s claims that SB 5722 violates his religious rights, stating that SB 5722’s objective is “not to infringe upon or restrict practices because of their religious motivation,” but to “protect the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth by protecting minors against exposure to serious harms caused by conversion therapy.”

Robert Ferguson, Washington’s Attorney General, expressed his joy with the ruling, calling it an “important victory for LGBTQ+ civil rights.” He added that “Conversion therapy does not work and can be particularly harmful to minors.