Counselors Receive Nearly $1 Million After City Banned ‘Talk Therapy’ For Minors With Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction
Kate Anderson on May 2, 2023
The city of Tampa paid $950,000 in a settlement after a court ruled that an ordinance banning “talk therapy” for minors experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction was unconstitutional, according to a press release.
In February, a United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals panel of judges struck down a 2017 city ordinance that banned “conversion therapy,” the ability of therapists to counsel minors if they were dealing with unwanted feelings of same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, prompting Robert Vazzo and David Pickup, who are both licensed therapists, to file a lawsuit later that year. After the court ruled against the law in February, the city paid a $950,000 settlement Tuesday, according to a press release from Liberty Counsel.
“Today, Liberty Counsel received $950,000 from the City of Tampa for the legal victory which struck down the counseling ban that prevented licensed counselors from providing voluntary talk therapy to minors seeking help to reduce or eliminate their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity,” the press release read. “On April 6, 2023, the Tampa City Council unanimously passed the resolution approving the $950,000 settlement to Liberty Counsel.”
In the court’s decision, it referred to the case Otto v. the City of Boca Raton, where the city also passed a ban on talk therapy after LGBTQ advocates argued that the law would prevent therapists from pushing their agenda onto minors. The court, however, ruled that the ordinance’s “content-based regulations of speech” violated the First Amendment.
“Counselors and clients now have the freedom to choose the counsel of their choice and be free of political censorship from government-mandated speech as a result of this victory,” Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman, said in the press release. “The government has no business eavesdropping inside the counseling rooms, and the city has no authority to enact a local counseling regulation. Any city that tries to enact such a ban will face the same consequences.”
The city confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that the payment had been made but declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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