A Christian advocacy group is challenging local laws that ban counseling aimed at making gay children straight.
Liberty Counsel, headquartered in Orlando, has filed an appeal in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that bans in Boca Raton and Palm beach County are unconstitutional.
The case is filed on behalf of counselors Robert Otto, of Boca Raton, and Julie Hamilton, of Palm Beach Gardens, both licensed marriage and family therapists. It reflects a national debate about whether “conversion therapy” increases suicides or saves lives.
The counseling attempts to change a client’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bi-sexual or transgender to heterosexual. In the South Florida case, the therapists use traditional talk therapy, although there have been stories across the country of counselors using more invasive techniques, such as electro-convulsive therapy.
The South Florida ordinances challenge the free speech rights of the therapists as well as the right of families to choose counseling that fits their beliefs, said Roger Gannam, Liberty Counsel’s assistant vice president for legal affairs. He said the appeal marks the beginning of what is likely to become a lengthy national legal battle.
“The issue is headed to the (U.S.) Supreme Court,” Gannam said. “Whether it’s these cases remains to be seen.”
Numerous studies have concluded that conversion therapy is risky. A report published in November in the Journal of Homosexuality found that LGBTQ individuals whose parents had sent them for the counseling as teenagers had a high rate of attempting suicide.
In Palm Beach County, the Human Rights Council, an LGBTQ advocacy group, has been working to get bans enacted in as many cities as possible, calling conversion therapy “extremely dangerous.”
“We were getting complaints from kids being subjected to this by their parents,” Rand Hoch, the council’s president, said Thursday. “The therapists tell the kids they won’t have friends or their family will disown them. Even though it’s just talk therapy, it could lead to all kinds of acting out and suicide.”
Boca Raton officials were unavailable for comment Thursday, spokeswoman Chrissy Gibson said. Palm Beach County officials did not respond to a request for comment.
The country’s major physical and mental health associations have come out against conversion therapy. The American Medical Association has a policy opposing “the use of ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy for sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The American Psychological Association advises people to “avoid sexual orientation change efforts that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder.”
But Liberty Counsel argues there are children who need and want this remedy.
“These licensed therapists provide life-saving counseling to minors who desperately desire to conform their attractions, behaviors, and gender identities to their sincerely held religious beliefs,” the counsel reports.
The bans, passed in cities throughout the country, prevent therapists from offering the counseling to minors if it’s designed to lessen their attraction to the same sex or their confusion over their gender. Besides the laws in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County, ordinances have been passed in Miami, Miami Beach, Wilton Manors, West Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Delray Beach, Tampa, Key West and many others.
In February, federal Judge Robin Rosenberg denied a preliminary injunction sought by Liberty Counsel that would have blocked the ordinances in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County from going into effect. She said the municipalities cited “extensive credible evidence of the damage that conversion therapy inflicts.”
Rosenberg said she had consulted decisions made by federal appeals courts that upheld conversion therapy bans in New Jersey and California. Those courts held that the restrictions affected only the therapists’ “professional speech,” not their First Amendment rights.
But Gannam said the ruling prevents a therapist and client from even having a conversation.
“The counselors don’t go in with a predetermined outcome,” he said. The laws prevent “the ability of the counselors to have an open and frank discussion.”
Staff writer Brittany Wallman contributed to this report.
Lsolomon@sunsentinel.com