One state board of regulators has caved in its fight over a client’s peremptory demand that her counselor affirm her same-sex relationship.

It happened in Oregon, where the state board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists tried to fine a counselor for declining a patient’s demand to affirm her same-sex ideology and relationship.

The counselor targeted by the state was identified by the legal team at the ADF as Frank Canepa.

The organization explained he was fined $89,636 “for answering a client’s repeated demand to personally affirm same-sex relationships.”

Canepa, the legal team said, had seen the same client for more than two and a half years, and “had never mentioned his personal views on same-sex relationships in at least 44 other sessions in which this topic came up.”

Then the client went rogue, spending at least 20 minutes in one session demanding that Canepa approve her socially progressive beliefs.

“Canepa eventually told her he could not personally affirm these relationships because of his Catholic faith,” the ADF reported.

While his lawyers had just filed an appeal of the fine, the state board abruptly “withdrew its disciplinary action against him.

There was no explanation for the board’s about-face, the report said.

But the court involved has been notified that the state’s demands now are gone.

Jonathan Scruggs, of the ADF, said, “The government can’t target counselors for their views and force people to say things that go against their core convictions. The Supreme Court recently took Colorado to task for censoring counselors and mandating orthodoxy in the counselor’s office, and Oregon should take notice.”

The arguments in the legal case already had pointed out that the state’s action violated the First Amendment rights of the counselor.

That precedent comes from the recent Chiles v. Salazar case at the U.S. Supreme Court, which was just one of a multitude of anti-Christian and pro-LGBT agenda moves by Colorado officials, who were led by homosexual Gov. Jared Polis in their social agenda. The state has lost a long list of consecutive pro-LGBT fights at the Supreme Court, costing the state’s taxpayers millions in legal fees and costs.

The ADF pointed out Canepa tried “gently redirecting the client’s repeated demand to provide his personal views on same-sex relationship.”

But the client “persisted,” and eventually got an answer, only to then complain about it.

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.