Two judges, appointed by President Donald Trump, have struck down laws in Florida that banned ‘conversion therapy’ on children.
The laws, in the city of Boca Raton and Palm Beach County, banned therapists from trying to ‘cure’ people’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
But therapists Robert Otto and Julie Hamilton argued the laws violated their rights to free speech. The therapists said their clients usually had ‘sincerely held religious beliefs conflicting with homosexuality’.
Therefore they wanted counseling so their identities and behavior matched those beliefs. Now the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with the therapists in a two-to-one decision.