The Nebraska state capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Getty Images)
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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 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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Kaley Chiles was the plaintiff in the Colorado case Chiles v. Salazar (Alliance Defending Freedom press release) (Alliance Defending Freedom, press release)
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 Eighth Circuit subsequently reached a similar conclusion in a case involving Kansas City.
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Thomas More Society is suing Lincoln, Nebraska for barring counselors from aiding minors who want to overcome their discomfort with their biological sex or same-sex attraction. (Getty Images)
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 Thomas More Society repeatedly asked Lincoln to repeal the ordinance or agree not to enforce it, but 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,” he added. “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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Thomas More Society accused the city of trying to police speech in counseling. (iStock)
In this instance, Heffron said the government is policing speech.
“When an ordinance tries to say what sort of view is allowed, what sort of speech is allowed, that’s viewpoint discrimination,” Heffron said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Jamie Reyes, director of the Lincoln Commission on Human Rights in Lincoln, Nebraska, for comment. The city said that it does not comment on pending litigation.