The current legislative year, recently concluded in many states, saw four huge failures for proponents of state-by-state bans on so-called “conversion” therapy in which counselors are not allowed to help juveniles overcome unwanted same-sex attractions.
The activist group Mass Resistance, which has defended the speech rights of counselors, noted several more states adopted the restrictions this year, but the movement failed in several others.
“We believe that all reparative therapy bans will eventually get struck down by the courts,” Mass Resistance’ report said. “In NIFLA v. Becerra, the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ‘professional speech’ is just as protected as any other speech. This signaled that they are prepared to strike down reparative therapy bans across the country.”
The NIFLA case was about California’s requirement that pro-life crisis pregnancy centers promote nearby abortionists. The high court said the state couldn’t do that.
“More recently, in Vazzo v. Tampa, a federal district judge in Florida struck down the Tampa Bay reparative therapy ban which had passed the previous year. The district judge relied on the legal opinion of the majority ruling in NIFLA to establish his own decision,” Mass Resistance said.
“Shortly after the passage of a ban on reparative therapy for minors in Maryland, Virginia-based therapist and pro-family activist Chris Doyle filed his own lawsuit against the law in Doyle v. Hogan et al. According to some reports, the federal district judge in that state respects and follows closely the legal precedent of the Supreme Court, which very likely means that he will strike down Maryland’s reparative therapy ban.”
The developments – “two different federal jurisdictions fighting this agenda, plus our own legislative activism and victories against these bans” – mean that the U.S. Supreme Court likely will need to step in to resolve the issue.
And that court, Mass Resistance said, “will likely fall in favor of protecting the First Amendment and the rights of parents and children to pursue reparative therapy.”
States that adopted restrictions on the First Amendment in earlier years included New Jersey, California, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Hawaii, Delaware, Maryland and New Hampshire.
The victories in 2019, Mass Resistance said, included in Utah, where the Mormon Church “has slowly eased off its formerly strong stance against the LGBT agenda” and “pro-family” politicians are becoming “soft” on the issue, the report said.
But following a dispute over amendments, the legislation never was voted on, the report said.
In Nebraska, “a particularly odious reparative therapy ban was filed” that would have “officially deemed ‘conversion therapy'” an abuse.
But Nebraskans testified against the plan, and hundreds of emails to lawmakers spelled out the problems in the proposal.
The bill failed.
In Minnesota, lawmakers initially failed to adopt a proposed speech ban, but a special legislative session was called and the issue might arise again.
“Members of our Minnesota MassResistance team took nothing for granted. Throughout the state, our activists called their State House Reps and Senators to state their opposition to any ban on reparative therapy. Having heard loudly and clearly from citizens across the state, the final Health and Human Services budget included nothing on conversion therapy.”
The fourth victory came in Arizona, where lawmakers determined the proposal would not be heard before legislative deadlines, making it dead for the current session.
Losses for the campaign included in New York, where attention was focused on a “horrible” abortion law allowing abortion up to and during birth.
Mass Resistance said that left “far-left Democrats” in the majority were in a position to push through a ban.
“Within a few weeks of the new 2019 session, a flood of hideous legislation sailed through so quickly that conservatives had little opportunity to react. The whole legislative process was very sleazy and dishonest. These three bills were passed and signed into law within the first month: a full-on reparative therapy ban, a bill stipulating rights for so-called transgender individuals, and most radical pro-abortion law in the United States,” the report said.
Massachusetts saw the ban approved after pro-LGBT leaders in the legislature “engaged in shady tactics, often keeping the public in the dark” about the plans.
Colorado also was a forgone conclusion, with the Democrats in the majority in the legislature and the “openly homosexual and aggressively left-wing” Jared Polis in the governor’s office.
In that state, lawmakers also were busy adopting a “sex-ed bill” that bans teaching the facts about abstinence only in schools, diverting the attention of pro-family advocates from the therapy ban.
The idea for the speech restrictions on counselors originated in California. WND reported weeks ago when a lawsuit challenging the ban on licensed counseling of minors seeking to curb or eliminate same-sex attractions was refiled.
Liberty Counsel said it would refile Pickup v. Newsom in a California district court and work the case back up to the U.S. Supreme Court
Liberty Counsel said such refiling is rare but not unheard of in instances in which the Supreme Court establishes a precedent during the course of a case.
