Free Republic

A court ruling is delivering legal fees to Liberty Counsel, which successfully fought on behalf of several plaintiffs against Florida city bans on ordinary talk therapy for minors who have unwanted same-sex attractions. The plaintiffs also have been awarded damages. The court earlier ruled that such limits violate the First Amendment. Now Liberty Counsel, which won the cases Otto v. Boca Raton and Vazzo v. Tampa that involved the government censorship of counselors who were asked to provide "minor clients with help to reduce or eliminate unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or gender confusion," said it is being paid.

A former pastor at the school where Nashville shooter Audrey Hale killed six people on Monday claimed she was being couseled by Chad Scruggs, the father of one of the victims, only to later say he had been mistaken. Jim Bachmann said in an interview with Inside Edition that Hale appeared to be searching for Scruggs, the current pastor at the Covenant School, in surveillance footage the police released. However, when approached by The Post on Wednesday, Bachmann said he had since realized he was wrong. “I understand that they were not counseling, actually,” Bachmann said. “I think there’s just...

One of the six victims killed by Nashville shooter Audrey Hale was the daughter of a pastor who was “providing counseling for her,” according to a recent report.“Something didn’t sit right with her,” Jim Bachmann — the former pastor at The Covenant School which Hale stormed on Monday, killing six — told Inside Edition.Bachmann described how Covenant Pastor Chad Scruggs, whose 9-year-old daughter, Hallie, was among those killed, had been Hale’s private counselor.Transgender Hale arrived at The Covenant School around 9:54 a.m., blasted her way in through locked glass doors, and carried out a 14-minute killing spree that left three...

A homosexual federal judge has endorsed a Colorado state LGBT agenda point signed into law by a gay governor that imposes viewpoint discrimination on Christian counselors, threatening them with so-called "unprofessional conduct" charges if they encourage clients who want to rid themselves of same-sex attractions to do just that. They can, however, encourage clients to pursue homosexual behavior. It's part of a worldwide agenda against the fact that some people want to leave homosexuality, and, in fact, do. Such cases destroy the LGBT community's claim that people are "born" that way.

Local and state governments in the United States and other nations have been banning counseling individuals to get rid of unwanted same-sex attractions. But there's one population that's being injured each time that happens. Rape victims. Male rape victims. In the United States, more than a dozen states or local governments have moved to suppress information that counselors could provide to those victims. Recently, officials in the city of Tampa, Florida, appealed a federal judge's decision to block an ordinance prohibiting the counseling of children who seek help overcoming same-sex attractions.

In the melting Arctic, communities are racing to maintain their way of life. In the rising Pacific, residents are sounding alarm bells. And in Rhode Island, Kate Schapira and her husband are not having a baby. Fears about climate change are prompting worldwide action, but one knock-on effect in the United States is mounting anxiety about everything from plastics to class-based environmental disparities. Schapira, a 40-year-old senior lecturer in the English department at Brown University, is addressing that unease in a number of ways. The decision not to have children was not just about concern for their future wellbeing amid...

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, April 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― A well-loved pro-life sidewalk counselor was attacked by a woman exiting an abortion mill, leaving her with a broken thighbone and a bleeding head wound. Donna Durning, a sidewalk counselor for over 20 years, was outside the E.M.W. Women’s Surgical Center on the afternoon of April 13 when a younger woman who had been inside the abortion mill violently pushed her, causing her to fall on the pavement. She underwent surgery. Durning told LifeSiteNews that the young woman, who was in her early twenties, had gone out from the clinic to a car...

Briony Whitehouse was a 19-year-old intern in 2003 when she boarded an elevator in the Russell Senate Office Building with a Republican senator who, she said, groped her until the doors reopened. She never reported the incident to her bosses for fear of jeopardizing her career. But she recently tweeted about her experience on Twitter as part of the #MeToo campaign, a social-media phenomenon that has aired thousands of complaints about sexual harassment. Some of the accounts have called out by name Hollywood moguls, media stars, even a former U.S. president. Other women such as Whitehouse have stopped short of...

The University of California Berkeley is making counseling and other services available to students who may be upset or "threatened" by conservative writer Ben Shapiro's upcoming appearance on campus. In a memo published on Friday ahead of the event, the University reminded students that support services would be available if they were to need them. Follow Alex Griswold ✔@HashtagGriswold UC Berkeley is offering counseling services to those upset by Ben Shapiro's speech We are deeply concerned about the impact some speakers may have on individuals’ sense of safety and belonging. No one should be made to feel threatened or...

MISSOULA - Captain (Chaplain) Matthew Christensen, a 1992 graduate of Flathead High School, was awarded the Soldier's Medal last week for his actions that resulted in saving the lives of two soldiers. When Christensen went to counsel a soldier who was having a hard time, he didn’t realize it would escalate into a dangerous hostage situation. Christensen spent much of the night counseling the soldier. Later, the soldier's roommate and another chaplain showed up at the barracks. Things got worse. The soldier called some family members, cursing them for abusive situations in the past. Christensen said, "And then he just...

Amidst employees in tears following the election of Donald Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency is offering counseling sessions on "dealing with change." [Snip] Topics included "How to deal with change," "How do you keep your composure and make better decisions under pressure?" "How can you spend your energy more wisely—and have more as a result?" and "How do you recognize and eliminate harmful habits that cause you stress?" The agency's Employee Counseling and Assistance Program held the sessions, which also covered "How can you stop yourself from getting hurt and/or angry?"

People who work at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy are having a hard time coping with the election of Donald Trump as president, with many reporting depression and some being advised to take sick leave, according to an article published Friday by Environment and Energy Publishing (E&E). “U.S. EPA employees were in tears,” the article stated. “Worried Energy Department staffers were offered counseling. “Some federal employees were so depressed, they took time off,” it stated. “Others might retire early. “And some employees are in downright panic mode in the aftermath of Donald Trump's victory,” the...

It's almost Halloween, and for colleges and universities across the country, that means numerous opportunities for students to demonstrate how sensitive they are to things like diversity, cultural appropriation, racism, sexism, classism, and any other politically correct "ism" that reduces the poor little snowflakes to quaking, quivering, wobbly bowls of Jell-O. How to combat the coming onslaught of emotionally painful violations of right thinking? One college is offering around-the-clock counseling for students who find some costumes too much to bear. American Mirror: The University of Florida wants students to know that if they’re offended or scared by Halloween, there’s counselors...

Cops are on the hunt for Sinead O'Connor after someone in her family told cops she's threatening to kill herself. Chicago PD got a call from Irish authorities saying Sinead contacted her family an hour ago and said she was suicidal and planned to jump off a bridge in the Chicago area. We're told cops actually spotted someone who looked like she fit the profile but it wasn't Sinead.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is in the process of hiring more counselors after students claimed that the university has a problem with microaggressions and racial bias. Chancellor Rebecca Blank recently announced university plans to accelerate “the hiring of additional student support counseling services … for student mental health issues related to diversity and climate.” She also mentioned plans to have incoming freshmen attend a newly designed “cultural competency” program that aims to rid students of their biases before future transgressions are committed against the university’s social minorities.

White House officials pushed to ban conversion therapy for LGBT youths, pointing to new findings that debunk the therapy. A ban on the conversion therapy for minors was introduced in Congress on Thursday, following a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "The science rebukes this so-called practice and so do we," White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett told reporters on a call Thursday. The report from the administration includes a consensus from an expert panel held by the American Psychological Association earlier this summer.The panel found that variations in "sexual orientation and gender identity are normal,...

A year ago I received an invitation from the head of Counseling Services at a major university to join faculty and administrators for discussions about how to deal with the decline in resilience among students. At the first meeting, we learned that emergency calls to Counseling had more than doubled over the past five years. Students are increasingly seeking help for, and apparently having emotional crises over, problems of everyday life. Recent examples mentioned included a student who felt traumatized because her roommate had called her a “bitch” and two students who had sought counseling because they had seen a...

The FBI is now referring some potential terror suspects to counseling in a new strategy to defeat homegrown Islamic State supporters. Rather than lock up everyone in the U.S. suspected of potential terrorist activity, the FBI will refer up to 10 percent of the thousands of people under investigation to counseling, reported The Wall Street Journal. Proponents of the plan told TheWSJ it will ease the FBI’s investigative burden, and provide a possible “off ramp” from radicalization for some of the thousands of people in the U.S. interested in ISIS, especially minors.

NEW YORK – At a hearing Monday in Manhattan in which he ruled filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza must continue community service for four more years, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said he considers D’Souza’s violation of federal campaign-finance laws to be evidence of a psychological problem and ordered further counseling. D’Souza’s defense counsel Benjamin Brafman provided evidence to the court that the psychiatrist D’Souza was ordered to see found no indication of depression or reason for medication. In addition, the psychologist D’Souza subsequently consulted provided a written statement concluding there was no need to continue the consultation, because D’Souza was...

To the abortion absolutists of the left, it isn’t enough that a woman kill off the life inside of her. She then has to be happy about it. Recently on The Daily Beast, writer Samantha Allen disregarded the voices of women who suffer Post Abortion Stress Syndrome and attacked post-abortion counseling offered by pro-life groups. Allen accused counseling services of “peddling medical lies” about the procedure of abortion. The author exploited the tragic post-abortion suicide of Stacy Zallie at age 21, whose parents founded The Stacy Zallie Foundation to offer “non-judgemental” post-abortion care in her memory. The piece bashed the...