City wants to control counseling over unwanted same-sex attractions

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The city of Tampa, Florida, has appealed a federal judge's decision to block its ordinance prohibiting the counseling of children who seek help overcoming same-sex attractions.

Similar laws have been defeated in other jurisdictions.

In Tampa, U.S. District Judge William Jung, said Tampa insisted on intervening in "this sensitive, intense and private moment."

The judge granted summary judgment to Liberty Counsel in its lawsuit against Tampa's ordinance prohibiting "licensed counselors from providing voluntary talk therapy to minors seeking help to reduce or eliminate their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity."

The ruling, which permanently strikes the ordinance, was based on the fact that cities don't have the authority to regulate health care.

"According to the city, the ordinance regulates medical professionals and 'part of the practice of medicine' within the city limits," the judge said. "The city is unaware of any child every receiving proscribed SOCE [sexual orientation change effort] in the city. The city has never before substantively regulated and disciplined the practice of medicine, psychotherapy, or mental health treatment with city limits. Nor does the city possess charter or home rule authority to do so."

The ordinance, the judge said, "is preempted by the comprehensive Florida regulatory scheme for healthcare regulation and discipline."

Liberty Counsel defended marriage and family therapist Robert Vazzo and his minor clients, as well as New Hearts Outreach Tampa Bay.

The judge also noted: "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."

Now, according to Liberty Counsel, the city is appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has not yet set a briefing schedule.

Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel's founder, said: "We are confident the court of appeals will uphold Judge Jung’s well-reasoned decision that the city has no business intruding in counseling sessions between families and licensed professionals. In fact, this appeal presents the opportunity for an even more widespread decision to help children throughout the state and the nation."

The judge rejected the "made-up term 'conversion therapy' that activists and the media frequently use," Liberty Counsel said.

"Broadly stated, the ordinance bars therapy within the city by medical doctors and mental health professionals that seeks to assist a minor patient in a goal to change gender expression or to change sexual orientation/attraction. These two subjects are separate and distinct, but related. The cases have generically referred to these two subjects as ‘SOCE’ or sexual orientation change efforts. The ordinance uses the term 'conversion therapy.' Neither term is entirely accurate," the judge said.

The court also ruled that local governments do not have authority to regulate counseling because it is the prerogative of the state, and the ban could interfere with a patient’s right to privacy and a parent’s right to choose health care for their children under Florida law, Liberty Counsel said.