Posted on 10/08/2019 7:53:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A Tampa city ordinance banning counseling for minors with unwanted same-sex attraction and gender confusion has been overturned in federal court.
In a Friday ruling from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Judge William F. Jung issued an order granting summary judgment to Christian legal group Liberty Counsel in its lawsuit to invalidate an ordinance in the city of Tampa that prohibited voluntary talk therapy for minors experiencing unwanted sexual feelings and attractions and gender identity confusion.
The group represented Robert Vazzo, a marriage and family therapist, and New Hearts Outreach Tampa Bay, a Christian counseling and discipleship ministry. With Jung's ruling, the ordinance was struck down, arguing that the government does not have standing to try to interfere with confidential conversations in therapy sessions.
“The City has never before substantively regulated and disciplined the practice of medicine, psychotherapy, or mental health treatment within City limits. Nor does the City possess charter or home rule authority to do so. The City Ordinance is preempted by the comprehensive Florida regulatory scheme for healthcare regulation and discipline," the ruling reads.
“Nothing is more intimate, more private, and more sensitive, than a growing young man or woman talking to a mental health therapist about sex, gender, preferences, and conflicting feelings. The Ordinance inserts the City’s code enforcers into the middle of this sensitive, intense and private moment. But this moment is already governed by Florida’s very broad rights of privacy, something the Ordinance ignores … The Florida Constitution’s privacy amendment suggests that government should stay out of the therapy room. The Tampa Ordinance does not address this constitutional issue, and in doing so the City attempts to occupy a very private space, contrary to a strong statewide policy.”
The ruling also underscored the importance of parental rights, calling them "fundamental" and protected by both the Florida Supreme Court and the state constitution.
“This is a great victory for counselors and clients," Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel said in response to the ruling.
"This ruling dooms every municipality in Florida and is the beginning of the end of more than 50 similar local laws around the country," he added, noting that the First Amendment "will wipe away" every other legal measure that is restrictive of such speech.
The issue of therapeutic options for persons who experience gender confusion or unwanted same-sex attraction has risen to the fore in recent years as various states and cities have banned the practice, which is often referred to as "conversion therapy" or "sexual orientation change efforts" (SOCE). With the ascent of the transgender movement these laws have been passed not only with regard to sexual orientation but also "gender identity," forbidding intervention when someone self-identifies as the opposite sex.
The Vazzo decision is the latest of legal developments signaling a reversal of therapy bans amid pushes elsewhere to outlaw such counseling.
Last month, the city council of New York City moved to repeal its two-year-old ban, citing the changing composition of the judiciary, including a conservative-leaning Supreme Court, and the likelihood that it would ultimately be struck down on free speech grounds.
That likelihood is in part due to the words of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the majority opinion in NIFLA v. Becerra, a case — decided in June 2018 — that centered around a group of California-based pro-life pregnancy centers. Citing the First Amendment, the plaintiffs in the case argued that they should not in any way have to promote or refer for abortion-related services as was required in a state law, the Reproductive FACT Act.
Writing in their favor, Thomas cited two cases, Pickup v. Brown and King v. Governors of New Jersey, in which lower courts ruled that sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) laws were constitutional and that the speech of the counselor is not fully protected under the First Amendment since the speech is classified as professional "conduct."
The NIFLA opinion, however, went on to explain that certain appeals courts "have recognized 'professional speech' as a separate category of speech that is subject to different rules," but "speech is not unprotected merely because it is uttered by 'professionals.'"
Leave it to Satan to insist on encouraging, protecting, and celebrating people going into sin, and forbidding them from getting help to come out of it.
The left is only satisfied with pushing people into a homosexual lifestyle and abhors them coming out.
What hypocrites!!!!
Stories like this give me encouragement that the pendulum is finally swinging back toward the sane side of absurdity. We have a long way to go, but this is encouraging.
Here is a good inoculation for minors with unwanted same sex attraction. Don’t send them to homo-fascist public schools where they are forced to learn the virtues of transgenderism, homosexuality, and naked communism
I've often wondered about what happens with a child who has two mommies or two daddies. What if a male child of such a couple decides he likes girls? Are the two Dads disappointed and try to dissuade him? Do they accept that he's not gay ? Would this ever happen ??
Just curious
When did that ever matter to the left?
If you are upset at the last election, there is counseling for you. If you want to change your gender identity, there is counseling for you. But if you are suffering from temptation but want to lead a selfless life, liberals want to prevent you from getting counselling.
It matters when burning an American flag is defined as free speech.
No doubt, there is a lot of bad in the public forefront, but there are also a lot of really good Christian people left. One of our big problems is that evil people have seized the controls of the media and government, but there are vast numbers of people who are infuriated by it. They just have a hard time getting their voices out.
I am not yet convinced that we are spiraling down the toilet to the eschatological ending just yet. Christianity is making inroads in Muslim countries. I read the other day where millennial approval of LGBT behavior has fallen dramatically in recent years. God does great things when all seems lost precisely so people will know He is moving and acting in the world. I don’t see where the preponderance of mankind are all thinking and doing all evil “all the time”. It is not our place to know when he is coming, anyway.
To me, our place is to trust God, live in the world as a witness to him, and have ourselves sitting on ready for whenever he does come.
Funny about that, isn’t it?
[[Stories like this give me encouragement that the pendulum is finally swinging back]]
We need ti to swing back nationally- many states ban ‘conversion therapy’ or even counseling for such cases- which undermines the parent’s rights to raise their kids as they deem fit to do-
[[Are the two Dads disappointed and try to dissuade him?]]
They will eventually take them to ‘conversion therapy’ to make them gay- and you watch ,the courts will uphold that ‘right’- while Christian parents will be barred from taking their kids to conversion therapy when the kids are confused and think they are gay
[[One of our big problems is that evil people have seized the controls of the media and government,]]
And the way they’ve laid siege is through their ‘Rage Machine”- Every time a Christian or society for that matter tries to stand up against the Satanic agenda of the left, the left become violently rageful- and the msm back them up all the way- until so much pressure is put on the ones trying to right things, that they shrink back and allow the left to walk al over them
Essentially what the right have done is ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child’ and now, as a result, the children are running the household
Easier to give the temper tantrum throwing child what they are screaming for than to stand strong and resist giving in
So that is out predicament now-
Why not simplify to BLT…
?
I’m think you are exactly correct.....
Do you mean to tell me, your honor, that free speech, expression, and association are constitutional rights, and that the geniuses on Tampa City council don’t have a right to interfere with my therapist and me? This is an outrage! We need the learned betters among us in our board rooms, bedrooms, churches, anywhere where we might be subjected to ideas we already agreed to!
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