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May 21, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A Christian family therapist is suing the state of Washington over its law banning minors from receiving counseling for unwanted same-sex attraction, arguing that the measure violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution.
The Christian Post reports that Brian Tingley has filed the lawsuit in the US District Court of the Western District of Washington at Tacoma against SB 5722, signed by Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee in 2018. The law declares it “unprofessional conduct” to perform so-called reparative or conversion therapy on anyone under age eighteen.
Tingley’s lawsuit, helmed by the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), says the law “seeks to impose uniformity and silence dissent on topics about which both clients and counselors hold differing views motivated by ideology, faith beliefs, and differing interpretations of science,” violates the First Amendment's speech and religious protections, and defines “conversion therapy” too vaguely to comply with the Fourteenth Amendment’s due-process guarantee.
“Over the years, Plaintiff Tingley has had multiple clients, including minor clients, who experienced unwanted same-sex attraction and desired Mr. Tingley’s help in reducing those attractions so they could enter into heterosexual romantic relationships and the family lives which they longed for, and also so they could live in a manner consistent with the moral teachings of their Christian faith,” the suit explains. But the law violates his “right to practice his religious beliefs by speaking to clients on topics of gender identity and sexual attractions and change in a manner consistent with the teachings of his faith and that of his clients.”
Opponents of reparative therapy commonly elicit opposition to the practice by invoking fringe, abusive practices such as electric shock and other forms of physically-harmful junk science. But in reality, modern reparative treatment consists largely of simple counseling, the effectiveness of which is backed by studies as well as testimony from those who have benefited.
Last November, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that similar bans in Florida’s Palm Beach County and City of Boca Raton were unconstitutional.