Christian counselors are suing Lincoln, Nebraska, over an ordinance they say threatens therapists with jail, fines and professional consequences for helping minors who want to become comfortable with their biological sex or address unwanted same-sex attraction, even after the Supreme Court struck down a similar Colorado restriction earlier this year.
Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Matt Heffron told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday that Lincoln’s ordinance amounts to government “viewpoint discrimination,” arguing counselors are permitted to help minors move toward gender transition but are barred from counseling them toward accepting their biological sex when that is the client’s stated goal.
“The government allows certain type of speech in therapy sessions, and it disallows other sorts of speech or viewpoints,” Heffron said. “It’s just a confirmation of government viewpoint, government-favored speech over disfavored speech.”
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Heffron said Lincoln’s ordinance prevents counselors from helping minors who want to become comfortable with their biological sex or address unwanted same-sex attraction.
He argued that a nearly identical Colorado restriction was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Chiles v. Salazar as viewpoint discrimination and that the 8th Circuit subsequently reached a similar conclusion in a case involving Kansas City.
Heffron said a counselor accused of having those conversations could face an investigation and potentially a misdemeanor charge, a $500 fine, a $100 civil penalty and the loss of professional licenses or credentials.
Heffron said the Thomas More Society repeatedly asked Lincoln to repeal the ordinance or agree not to enforce it. So, after the city declined to do so and stopped responding, the group filed suit.
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“The stakes of this case, as far as minors are concerned, is that there are minors out there, and a fair number of them is what I hear, who are, perhaps faith-based or for other reasons, they are unhappy with same-sex attraction that they may be experiencing, or they’re unhappy with what used to be called gender dysphoria,” Heffron said.
“And these minors go to a therapist, particularly a Catholic one like the one in this case, and they ask to be helped. It’s awful. It’s cruel to tell those children they can’t be helped.Â
“In fact, the only thing that the statute or that ordinance allows is it will allow that therapist to help guide them into gender transition with all of the evils that include surgeries and hormones and that sort of thing. They can guide them into that. And they can make them comfortable with their same-sex attraction.”
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