The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a Tampa, Florida ordinance that prohibited licensed counselors from providing voluntary talk therapy to minors seeking help to reduce or eliminate their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity, is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
In Vazzo v. City of Tampa, Liberty Counsel represents marriage and family therapist Robert Vazzo and his minor clients, as well as the Christian ministry, New Hearts Outreach Tampa Bay.
Thursday’s ruling is based on Liberty Counsel’s earlier victory in Otto v. City of Boca Raton in which the Eleventh Circuit previously ruled that similar bans preventing counselors from helping their clients in Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton were also unconstitutional viewpoint restrictions on speech under the First Amendment.
The three-judge panel wrote, “We held this case in abeyance pending the issuance of the mandate in Otto v. City of Boca Raton. In Otto, we held that city and county ordinances banning sexual orientation change efforts (“SOCE”) were unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The City of Tampa’s SOCE ordinance here is substantively the same as the ordinances at issue in Otto. Accordingly, we are bound by our prior-panel precedent rule to affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the Plaintiffs-Appellees.”
Anchorage Assembly passed a similar ordinance in 2020, after getting technical assistance from the Trevor Project, a transgender grooming nonprofit in Washington, D.C. The Assembly ban appears to curb some speech regarding gay sexual behavior. No counselor or therapist in Anchorage has challenged the Anchorage ordinance, nor has the State of Alaska weighed in on the constitutionality of the ordinance.
