TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa City Council on Thursday unanimously passed the resolution approving the settlement by the city in Christian-based Liberty Counsel's favor which struck down an ordinance banning conversion therapy.
The city of Tampa is set to pay Liberty Counsel $950,000 as a result.
“Counselors and clients have the freedom to choose the counsel of their choice and be free of political censorship from government-mandated speech," Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement. "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.”
Back on Feb. 2, the federal appeals court affirmed the 2019 ruling that struck down the controversial practice of attempting to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
In 2020, the court struck down laws in Boca Raton and Palm Beach, Florida, concluding that "speech-based therapy" is not medical conduct but "merely the expression of a viewpoint," the American Psychological Association noted. The ordinances were ruled unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Tampa's ordinance largely was the same as the other cities, the court said.
Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum, who concurred with the court's ruling, wrote that while she agreed with the decision to affirm, the other Florida cases were wrongly decided.
Tampa's ordinance was approved in 2017 and challenged by religious groups and therapists, including Liberty Counsel, who practices conversion therapy. They claimed it violated their free-speech rights.
10 Tampa Bay's Andrew Krietz contributed to this report.