U.S. District Court Orders a Florida City and County to Pay Damages for Violating First Amendment Rights

Tgsjmiller - April 20, 2023

April 20, 2023

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U.S. District Court Orders a Florida City and County to Pay Damages for Violating First Amendment Rights

As radical gender ideology continues to spread throughout health care in the U.S., the left is taking aim at practices that stand in its way while disregarding First Amendment freedoms.

Currently, 20 states have banned the intentionally misnamed “conversion therapy,” which is actually just the practice of providing counseling to help individuals with same-sex attraction or gender confusion reorient in synch with their God-given sexuality. However, the name “conversion therapy” – a misnomer much like “reproductive health care” in relation to abortion – is intentionally used by the left to conjure up images of patients being effectively tortured, badgered, or bullied into renouncing homosexual interests or abandoning transgenderism.

Banning counseling efforts to guide a patient through struggles with their sexual orientation is a direct violation of free speech, freedom of religion, and patients’ freedom to seek the treatment they want. It also threatens parents’ rights to direct the mental health care and education of their children.

Those struggling with any mental health problem need guidance rooted in Truth and reality, not in lies rooted in the baseless religion of progressivism.

Thankfully, a U.S. district court has ordered the city of Boca Raton, Florida, to pay a combined $75,000 in damages to two therapists, while also ordering Palm Beach County to pay a fine of $100,000 for passing so-called “conversion therapy” bans for minors seeking help with unwanted homosexual attraction.

Boca Raton and Palm Beach County passed laws prohibiting conversion therapy for minors in 2017. The two plaintiffs, marriage and family therapists Robert Otto and Julie Hamilton, filed lawsuits arguing that their therapy was voluntary and focused on reducing unwanted homosexual attraction rather than changing the client.

Liberty Counsel, which represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the judge’s order sets a “precedent that minors who are struggling with gender confusion can get the help they need from counselors who are free from political censorship” and it should “be a warning to any government that has not repealed similar counseling bans.”

Several municipalities in Wisconsin have audaciously enacted these bans that blatantly violate counselors’ First Amendment freedoms and rob confused minors of the real help and hope they need. Hopefully, these local governments in our state pay attention to this case and reverse course.

Wisconsin School Choice application window closes today, April 20!

Visit the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) website to check out the options for your family for the 2023-2024 school year!

View information, deadlines, and applications for school choice programs here!

Babies Saved; Women Spared

Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the issue of abortion back to the states. Wisconsin is one of a handful of states that had a law on the books that pre-dated Roe. Our abortion ban goes back to 1849, just a year after our statehood. Once Roe was overturned, this ban went into effect. Just how effective has that law been?

Last week, a pro-abortion group, Society of Family Planning, issued a report summarizing the impact on abortion since Roe was overturned. The report, entitled, “We Count,” indicates that nationally between July 2022 and December 2022, there were over 32,000 “cumulative fewer abortions” when compared to the average monthly number of abortions observed in the pre-Dobbs period.

This same report looked at several individual states where abortion bans have been in place, including Wisconsin. According to the report, before the Dobbs decision, Wisconsin had 605 abortions each month on average. After the court decision came down late last June, that number dropped to less than 10, resulting in over 3,500 babies being saved from last July through this past December—and all those babies’ moms being spared, as well.

We need this pro-life law to stay in effect as long as possible because every day it is in effect, real lives are saved, and real women are spared.

Lawsuit in Kettle Moraine School District

Attorneys with Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) representing two sets of Wisconsin parents challenging a Kettle Moraine School District policy are involved with oral arguments in Waukesha County Circuit Court this week.

Lead counsel from WILL, together with ADF attorneys, filed the lawsuit, B.F. v. Kettle Moraine School District, in November 2021 to challenge the school district’s policy of changing students’ names and gender pronouns at school without parental consent.

In February of this year, the parents filed a motion that asked the Waukesha County Circuit Court to rule in favor of their parental rights after the court denied the school district’s motion to dismiss the case. Similar cases are taking place in Madison and Eau Claire school districts.

What is happening in these cases is not isolated to these three districts. This type of egregious violation of parental rights that ultimately harms children is happening in some way in the vast majority of school districts in Wisconsin. Parents with children in a government school in Wisconsin need to be aware of this; don’t assume it’s not happening. Assume it is happening. Be aware. Be involved.

New community event series: Religious Freedom Matters!
Read more about the Religious Freedom Matters! community event series by clicking HERE. Events around Wisconsin are coming soon!

ECFA’s 39th Anniversary Celebration Banquet
Celebrating the 39 years of God’s goodness to ECFA with special guest, Amy Ford of Embrace Grace Ministries, delicious brunch and inspiring client testimonies.
April 22, 2023 Doors open at 8:30; Brunch and Program begin at 9:00
Marriott Milwaukee West, W231N1600 Corporate Ct., Waukesha 53186 Register here

LEAD WI
July 16-21, 2023
Maranatha Baptist University – Watertown, WI
Register here

IN THE MEDIA
WEEKLY RADIO COMMENTARY. “WISCONSIN FAMILY CONNECTION”
Airing this week on over 20 stations statewide. This week: “Babies Saved; Women Spared”

Click HERE to listen to this week’s Wisconsin Family Connection or read the complete radio commentary.
Subscribe to our podcasts HERE!

“WISCONSIN FAMILY MINUTE”
A daily program for Christian radio stations!

Listen on our website HERE
Click HERE to subscribe to your Wisconsin Family Minute podcasts and never miss an episode!
Find your local station to listen live HERE. If the Christian radio station you listen to isn’t carrying “Wisconsin Family Minute,” please encourage them to do so. Contact us at 866-849-2536 or info@wifamilycouncil.org.

STAND UP FOR THE TRUTH – Q90FM
WFC President Julaine Appling was a guest recently on q90fm’s “Stand Up for the Truth” podcast, hosted by our friend David Fiorazo. You can listen to the podcast HERE. David, Mary (new co-host), and Julaine had a robust discussion on the issues of the day from a Christian perspective. Julaine’s next appearance on Stand Up for the Truth is Thursday, May 18, 2023.

HOME FRONT/InFOCUS – VCY AMERICA
WFC President Julaine Appling hosts VCY America’s “Home Front” program every Wednesday afternoon (Sept.-May) at 3:15 p.m. On each program Julaine talks about important events happening in Wisconsin. Listen to yesterday’s show HERE .
Click HERE to listen to archived Home Front programs.

Julaine is also a monthly guest on VCY’s TV 30 live call-in program, “InFocus,” hosted by VCY America’s General Manager Jim Schneider. The program is on each Monday evening at 7 p.m., September through May. Julaine joined Jim on Monday, April 3. Watch online HERE. Julaine will be on InFocus again on Monday, May 15, 2023.