A Catholic counselor filed a lawsuit this week after being fined nearly $90,000 by the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists after she told a client he could not affirm a gay relationship because of his religious faith.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)A Christian legal group representing consultant Frank Canepa, filed a lawsuit On May 1, the Oregon Court of Appeals asked to overturn the order.
According to the ADF, Canepa had treated the client at least 44 times over two years and never mentioned his religious views on homosexual relationships. However, in one session, Canepa’s client insisted for 20 minutes that he “personally blesses” her homosexual relationship.
Canepa said he tried to politely redirect the client’s repeated demands for him to disclose his personal views on his homosexual relationship, but because she persisted, he ultimately told her he could not confirm it.
By doing so, he violated state law as well as the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics, according to the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists.
The board ordered Canepa to attend six hours of continuing education and pay for his hearing, which cost $89,636.
“The government can’t target consultants for their views and force people to say things that go against their core beliefs,” said Jonathan Scruggs, ADF senior counsel and vice president of litigation strategy.
Scruggs cited a recent decision chiles vs salazar The case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision on March 31, states that states cannot silence counselors’ personal or professional viewpoints during talk therapy sessions with clients.
The court held that such counseling conversations are protected speech under the First Amendment and that Colorado’s law targeting certain viewpoints on sexual orientation and gender identity is unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
One of Canepa’s lawyers, ADF attorney Logan Spain, told EWTN News that he expects the Oregon appeals court to follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s reasoning in Chile, which Spain described as “very strong.”
“Counseling is speech, which is protected by the First Amendment,” Spain said. “Oregon law states that counselors cannot impose their values on their clients. Canepa did not do that. She answered the client’s question when the client asked for her personal views.”
“In the context of a mentoring relationship, people want to know their mentors,” he adds. “A good consulting relationship requires transparency and authenticity,” which, in the case of Canepa and the client, lasted two and a half years.
Terry Braszewski, president-elect of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association, who submitted an amicus brief in the Chiles v. Salazar case, told EWTN News that Canepa “is not cited for being malicious or non-therapeutic, but rather for refraining from abandoning his beliefs … He was ethical and moral in his therapeutic approach and adherence to care for the individual.”
“These individual therapeutic qualities probably contributed to why the client continued seeing Canepa for two and a half years,” he said.
Canepa “did not support any position that was contrary to his faith and beliefs,” Braszewski said. Instead, they “chose to affirm their rights” to freedom of expression and the free practice of their religion.
“The Supreme Court recently held Colorado responsible for censoring counselors and mandating conservatorship in the counselor’s office,” Scruggs said. “Now, Oregon needs to learn that same First Amendment lesson. We are urging the Oregon Appellate Court to overturn the Board’s unlawful demand, restore First Amendment discretion, and stop the state’s attempt to weaponize its licensing system.”
