Op-Ed: LGBTQ Clique in Tampa, Boca & Palm Beach Lose Lawsuits – Christian Mental Health Counseling For Children NOT Banned

PALM BEACH, FL – “The LGBTQ mafia is trying to BAN Christian mental health counseling for children under 18 who desperately want to end their gender confusion and unwanted same-sex attractions and behaviors — because it is so effective in healing broken hearts, minds, and spirits by aligning them with our Father’s great design,” proclaims Matthew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel located in Florida. 

A survey of “detransitioners” (trans persons who reaffirm the gender God created them to be) conducted by Lisa Littman showed that 40% of respondents said their gender dysphoria was caused by a mental health condition and 62% felt medical professionals did not investigate whether trauma was a factor in their transition decisions. 

Dr. Littman, M.D., is President and Director of the Institute for Comprehensive Gender Dysphoria Research (ICGDR) and serves on the advisory boards of Gender Dysphoria Alliance (GDA) and GenSpect.  

Yet 87 laws ban lifesaving counsel that will help individuals overcome unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or gender confusion. These laws are spread over about half of the states with the rest in local municipalities. 

Last week, Tampa, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach County had to pay for their unconstitutional counseling bans that two federal Courts of Appeal struck down in our cases. These two victories wiped out 23 counseling bans in three states.  

The two cases — Otto v. City of Boca Raton , FL et al and Vazzo v. City of Tampa — struck down 23 laws. Our first-in-the-nation victories are binding in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

As a result, body dysphoria patients are once again free to seek Bible-based Christian therapy. 

Vazzo v. City of Tampa, 415 F.Supp.3d 1087 (M.D. Fla. 2019) – A federal court struck down a city 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. The court ruled that local governments do not have authority to regulate counseling because it is the prerogative of the state. 

The Tampa City Council unanimously passed the resolution approving the settlement by the City of Tampa for Liberty Counsel’s victory. Tampa will pay Liberty Counsel $950,000 as a result.  

This 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. 

Staver said, “Counselors and clients have the freedom to choose the counsel of their choice and be free of political censorship from government-mandated speech. 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.”  

Cat Cattinson was among a group of detransitioners who addressed Florida’s medical board in 2022, before it voted to protect under 18-year-olds from ‘sex-change’ surgeries, puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones. “We’re at a really critical time right now, where we have the opportunity to safeguard kids from making irreversible decisions they’ll regret.” 

She has seen the “level of hate really escalate to the point that any time a new de-transitioner shares their story online, they get dogpiled by thousands of trans activists, bullied, ridiculed, and of course death threats.” She added that for “every de-transitioner with a public platform, the new trend has been to call us liars and grifters and just try to invalidate everything we say.” 

With the explosive phenomenon of gender dysphoria continuing to ripple across America’s youth, a related but much less highlighted trend is simultaneously occurring – a movement almost completely ignored by the mainstream media. New studies are now emerging showing that the “detransitioner” movement is far larger than what is commonly acknowledged, with detransition rates nearing 30% in some instances. 

Sadly, the major mental health associations in the USA have deceived the public and minors by denying the reality of biology and promoting so-called gender-affirming care. The blood of betrayal is on the hands of The American Psychiatric Association, The American Psychological Association, The American Counseling Association, The American School Counselor Association, and The National Association of Social Workers. 

Related: 

• Trans-Identifying Jazz Jennings, Star Of TCL Reality TV, Regrets Harmful Drugs & Mutilation Surgeries   
• Dr. Jordan Peterson Interviews Therapist That Regrets Helping Children Transition – She’s Blowing The Whistle  
• Rainbow Redemption Project For Detransitioners – Courageous Sophia Galvin From Miami Found Jesus And Healing  
• New Study Finds Parents Felt Pressure From Gender Clinics To Transition Children – Explains “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria”  
• First Lawsuit In US From Detransitioner Mutilated By Surgeon and Hospital By Courageous Chloe Cole  

 Resources:  

Gender, Identity and Transition from a Psychological Perspective website. “Take a deep dive with us into a psychological exploration of body, mind, identity, culture, and psyche.” 

• Gender: A Wider Lens Podcast. Two therapists explore the expanding concept of “gender” from a psychological depth perspective. 
• Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria Podcast. Socially mediated mental health phenomena from different generations and other parts of the world shed light on this controversial issue. 
• Detransition Awareness: Beyond Identity & Political Narratives 
• Follow the Gender-brick Road: from Bi to Pan to Trans 
• Michael Biggs on Puberty Blockers: From Curiosity to Exposé 
• Falling Down the Gender Rabbit Hole: A Tale of Two Therapists 
•  A Takedown of Gender Politics with Wesley Yang  

Read Wesley Yang’s articles at Substack. 

• Erin Friday speaks the night Before the Do No Harm protest of the American Academy of Pediatrics about pulling her daughter out of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and organizing against the gender cult. (66 minutes) 
• Witness To A Medicalized Social Contagion. Pediatrician Julia Mason on the sudden influx of transgender identifying girls whom the clinics would immediately put on puberty blockers. Mason is a co-sponsor of Resolution 27, calling on the American Academy of Pediatrics to revisit its 2018 guidance on pediatric gender care and undertake a comprehensive review of the evidence on pediatric gender-affirming care. 

First Do No Harm Unity Rally: Detransitioner Abel Garcia Speaks Out. Partners for Ethical Care. Watch on YouTube.