Jennifer Keeton

Jennifer Keeton, 24, who was pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, said she was ordered to undergo a re-education plan that requires her to attend “diversity sensitivity training” when the school told her that her anti-gay beliefs are incompatible with the standards of her desired profession.

Keeton sued the University in July 2010, claiming that faculty and university staff had violated her rights to free speech and the free exercise of her Christian faith when it told her that, in order to stay in the program, she would have to change her beliefs about homosexuality, which Keeton cited as "immoral, unnatural, and a 'lifestyle choice' that can be reversed through “conversion therapy.”

According to the lawsuit, faculty members allegedly assailed Keeton’s beliefs as “inconsistent with the counseling profession” and “expressed suspicion over ‘Jen’s ability to be a multi-culturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning populations.’”

In supporting Augusta State in its actions, the U. S. District Court judge wrote, “The record suggests, and the testimony at the hearing bolsters, the Plan was imposed because Plaintiff exhibited an inability to counsel in a professionally ethical manner — that is, an inability to resist imposing her moral viewpoint on counselees – in violation of the ACA Code of Ethics.”

In its ruling on Friday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit agreed with the district court judge, ruling that because Keeton was unlikely to prevail in her lawsuit, a court order for her preventing expulsion was unwarranted.

The court noted that the requirements of the counseling program—needed for its continued accreditation and compliance with the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics—are similar to the rules for judges, who must apply laws even if they consider them erroneous.

“In seeking to evade the curricular requirement that she not impose her moral values on clients,” the appellate court wrote, “Keeton is looking for preferential, not equal, treatment.”

Augusta State University spokeswoman Kathy Schofe told LGBTQ Nation last month that the university had tried to work with Keeton, suggesting she take diversity sensitivity workshops and attend the local Augusta LGBTQ Pride parade, but Keeton refused and declined to participate claiming the university’s “demands” violated her First Amendment rights.

HRC

Vandy Beth Glenn

On Tuesday, the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision that the Georgia Legislature had unlawfully discriminated against Vandy Beth Glenn for firing her as bill proofreader in 2007 after she informed supervisors she intended to transition from male to female.

“An individual cannot be punished because of his or her perceived gender-nonconformity,” the court decision states. “Because these protections are afforded to everyone, they cannot be denied to a transgender individual.”

Judge Rosemary Barkett, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, which included Judge William Pryor and Senior Judge Phyllis Kravitch, determined the General Assembly’s Legislative Counsel, Sewell Brumby, violated Glenn’s rights under the Equal Protection Clause.

Lambda Legal had filed the case, known as Glenn v. Brumby, on behalf of Glenn in July 2008. In 2010, a district court had ruled previously in Glenn’s favor.

The court ruled in favor of Glenn even though no federal law is in place that specifically protects transgender people against discrimination in the workplace.

LGBT advocates see the ruling as significant because it could help make the case to bar discrimination against trans people in other situations.

Nan Hunter, a lesbian law professor at Georgetown University, said the decision advances other court rulings that have determined discrimination based on gender non-conformity amounts to sex discrimination by applying the potential protections to more people.

“It makes it extend beyond the more narrow definition of gender identity,” Hunter said. “I think it applies more broadly than to persons who have undergone surgery or hormonal treatment. That’s my sense of how the decision can be used. It is not explicit in the decision but the court used gender non-conformity, and the phrase gender-based behavioral norms, and I think that’s a very important development.”

Vandy Beth Glenn

Vandy Beth Glenn was fired as a legislative editor at the General Assembly after she disclosed she was going to transition from male to female.

According to Glenn, when she informed her boss Sewell Brumby of her planned transition, she was told it would be seen as “immoral” by Georgia’s lawmakers.

In 2006, Glenn told her direct supervisor she was in the process of becoming a woman. That Halloween, she made her first appearance at work dressed as a woman. But Sewell Brumby, then head of the Office of Legislative Counsel, found Glenn’s appearance inappropriate and asked her to leave.

“It’s unsettling to think of someone dressed in women’s clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing,” Brumby said in pretrial testimony, explaining his decision. It’s “unnatural,” he said.

In the fall of 2007, Glenn told her supervisor she would begin coming to work as a woman and would be changing her legal name to Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn. She provided the supervisor photos of herself as a woman and literature about gender identification disorder.

The supervisor told this to Brumby and gave him the written materials and photos.

On Oct. 16, 2007, Brumby called Glenn into his office and asked if she fully intended to become a woman. When Glenn said she did, Brumby fired her.

Brumby, who headed the counsel’s office from 1978 until he retired in August, also testified that he was concerned that “some members of the Legislature would view that taking place within our office as perhaps immoral, perhaps unnatural and perhaps, if you will, liberal or ultra-liberal.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution

During Thursday’s oral arguments, the judges seized on Brumby’s pretrial testimony, citing a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found it is not just illegal to discriminate against employees because of their sex, but that it is also illegal to discriminate against those who don’t conform to the stereotypes associated with their biological sex.

Gregory Nevins of the Lambda Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who is representing Glenn, said he was confident the law was on his client’s side.

“Vandy Beth was fired because her boss didn’t like who she is, and that kind of treatment is discriminatory and illegal,” Nevins said. “It is unfair and illegal to fire a transgender employee because she does not conform to your sexist stereotypes of how a woman should be.”

The 11th Circuit panel is considering the state’s appeal of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Story, who found Glenn was the victim of sex discrimination.

Story ordered Glenn returned to her job and for the state to no longer discriminate against her after she returns, but that decision was stayed pending the outcome of the appeal, according to Nevins.

A decision by the 11th Circuit is expected within a few months.

Jennifer Keeton

Jennifer Keeton, 24, who is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, said she was ordered to undergo a re-education plan that requires her to attend “diversity sensitivity training” when the school told her that her anti-gay beliefs are incompatible with the standards of her desired profession.

Keeton had said in and out class that, according to her Christian beliefs, homosexuality is immoral and a lifestyle choice.

Keeton is represented by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom, which contends that "A public university student shouldn’t be threatened with expulsion for being a Christian and refusing to publicly renounce her faith."

"But that’s exactly what’s happening here," said David French, senior counsel for the defense fund, in a statement. "Abandoning one’s own religious beliefs should not be a precondition at a public university for obtaining a degree."

According to the lawsuit filed in July 2010, faculty members allegedly assailed Keeton’s beliefs as "inconsistent with the counseling profession" and "expressed suspicion over 'Jen’s ability to be a multi-culturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (GLBTQ) populations.'"

The university maintained that it must hold its counseling graduate students “to the core principles of the American Counseling Association and the American School Counselor Association, which defines the roles and responsibilities of professional counselors in its code of ethics.

The code is included in the curriculum of the counseling education program, which states that counselors in training have the same responsibility as professional counselors to understand and follow the ACA Code of Ethics. The faculty identifies Keeton’s views as indicative of her "improper professional disposition to persons of such populations.”

Augusta State University spokeswoman Kathy Schofe told LGBTQ Nation that the university had tried to work with Keeton, suggesting she take diversity sensitivity workshops and attend the local Augusta LGBTQ Pride parade, but Keeton refused and declined to participate claiming the university's "demands" violated her First Amendment rights.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Keeton has already been rebuffed by the courts. Earlier this year, a U.S. district judge ruled in the university’s favor.

In supporting Augusta State in its actions, the judge wrote, “The record suggests, and the testimony at the hearing bolsters, the Plan was imposed because Plaintiff exhibited an inability to counsel in a professionally ethical manner -- that is, an inability to resist imposing her moral viewpoint on counselees – in violation of the ACA Code of Ethics.”

A classmate testified that Keeton said she would be compelled by her beliefs to tell gay or lesbian counseling clients that their behaviors were morally wrong and must be changed.

The university's president, Don Dowless, made it clear any staffer not signing the agreement faces immediate termination. The policy also requires staffers to reject premarital sex and adultery, prohibits consumption of alcoholic beverages in front of students, or attending university events within six hours of consuming alcohol.

“I think that anybody who adheres to a lifestyle that is outside of what the biblical mandate is and of what the board has passed, including the president, would not be allowed to continue here," Dowless said, in an interview with a local television station.

New employees will have to sign the agreement, and existing employees will have to sign it to renew their contracts.

“Failure to adhere to this statement may result in disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination,” the statement says.

A gay employee who works at Shorter told The GA Voice, "We now will live in fear that someone who doesn't like us personally or someone who has had a bad day will report that we've been drinking or that we are suspected of being gay."

The Personal Lifestyle Statement was adopted by the Board of Trustees on Oct. 21 and presented to employees on Oct. 24. It was one of several policies approved by the Board -- others include a “Policy for Christian Education,” “Biblical Principles on the Integration of Faith and Learning” and a “Statement of Faith.”

A Shorter student who asked not to be identified said "that the university is judging others, contrary to what the Bible teaches." Students, however, are not required to sign the policy.

”Anything outside that is not biblical, we do not accept," Dowless told the television station. “We have a right to hire only Christians."

The firings come as a result of a three-month investigation by the city into the Sept. 10, 2009, raid at the Atlanta Eagle that found many officers lied, knowingly violated the constitutional rights of those at the bar, destroyed evidence, and tried to cover up what they had done.

More than 20 Atlanta Police officers descended on the Atlanta Eagle, including its now-disbanded “Red Dog Unit” dressed in SWAT team gear, allegedly responding to complaints of drugs and public sex. But inside the bar the APD found no drugs, no public sex, and no illegal weapons.

During the raid, patrons of the bar were forced to lie face down in spilled beer and broken glass, and heard police refer to them using anti-gay slurs.

Police arrested or detained 62 people, but never filed charges against any of the patrons. Only 8 employees were charged with permit violations, but those charges were soon dropped or dismissed.

Atlanta's LGBT community was furious, calling the raid "aggressive," "indiscriminate" and “harassment.”

A federal lawsuit was filed and in December 2010, the city paid more than $1 million to settle the suit filed on behalf of 19 patrons.

The actions come almost 10 days after the release of 343-page report detailing how 16 officers lied or destroyed evidence when asked about the raid at the Atlanta Eagle bar. The report said 10 of them lied, which usually leads to a termination because those officers can no longer testify.

“Honesty goes to the very heart of a police officer’s credibility,” Chief George Turner said. “The public must be able to trust its police officers and expects them to tell the truth at all times. Failure to be truthful has serious consequences at the Atlanta Police Department. I hope my actions today serve as a reminder to those men and women on the force that dishonesty simply will not be tolerated.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution

In addition to the six terminations, nine other officers were reprimanded or suspended over the raid, and three more officers await discipline hearings next week. Two other officers accused of lying had already been dismissed in connection with an unrelated internal investigation.

Major Debra Williams, who oversaw one of the units that raided the bar, was demoted to lieutenant and retired from the department on Wednesday.

The AFA recently called for a nationwide boycott against The Home Depot because it says the home improvement retailer continues to “promote the homosexual agenda.”

AFA Executive Vice-President Buddy Smith, and Director of Special Projects Randy Sharp, said they were rebuffed by Home Depot Chairman Frank Blake and other company executives for challenging their "corporate endorsement" of marriage equality and LGBT rights.

"We presented to the shareholders and to the chairman and the board of directors over 470,000 signature petitions asking them to remain neutral in the culture war, specifically when it addresses gay marriage and homosexual activist groups," Sharp tells OneNewsNow.

The reception was cool, adds the AFA spokesman. Blake thanked AFA for the petitions but again, as in the past, reiterated the company's support for "diversity," which includes same-gender "marriage."

Atlanta-based Home Depot promotes diversity-oriented organizations, including “Out and Equal Workplace Advocates,” an LGBT advocacy group that supports workplace diversity, marriage equality, and activities such as Transgender Remembrance Day. The Home Depot is also a supporter of the Human Rights Campaign.

"For several years, The Home Depot has given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America's towns," said the AFA, in a statement. "The Home Depot has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals. Most grievous is The Home Depot's deliberately exposing small children to lascivious displays of sexual conduct by homosexuals and cross-dressers, which are a common occurrence at these events."

The AFA has been designated as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Most recently, Bryan Fischer, the AFA’s director of analysis for government and policy, has referred to gays as Nazi's, and also called gays the "#1 perpetrators of hate crimes in America."

Rashad Taylor

“I've spent the last few days with my family and my friends and my pastor. I needed to sit down with them and tell them what I've come to tell you and my constituents. And that is that I'm a gay man,” Taylor said.

“The gentleman who wrote the emails is the former partner of the person I am now seeing. And he hoped that he world humiliate and embarrass me by sending this email.

“He alleges that I somehow improperly used my office. While I don't pretend to understand exactly what he's talking about, I have nothing to hide. These allegations are absolutely and utterly false.

“For too long … I believed that being gay was something to hide. It was something to ignore. That it was something wrong with me. And unfortunately that attitude is all too prevalent within the gay community.

“I will not buy into the idea that being gay is something to be ashamed of.”

The author of the e-mail, who signed his name as "J. Callahan," asked for and received instructions from state officials on how to file an official ethics complaint against Taylor, but no complaint has been filed, according to House Ethics Committee Chairman Joe Wilkinson.

WSB-TV

Carroll County Sheriff’s officials are investigating the incident as arson and a possible hate crime.

The victim, Christopher Staples, 43, is openly gay.

"I was watching TV and just finished smoking a cigarette and I heard this big thud. Boom!" Staples told WSB-TV.

The rock had a threatening note attached.

"It said, ‘we know you're gay. And God hates gays. You won't be raping anybody in the county and God's going to make sure that you burn in hell.’ And something about my daddy... my daddy will make sure you burn in hell."

Then hours later, he woke up to flames filling his bedroom.

Staples' mother Wanda Morris told the Times-Georgian that Christopher has lived in the area for 31 years and has never had any trouble.

"He’s disabled and has been very sick," she said. “He hardly every leaves the house so I just don’t understand this kind of hate towards someone they obviously don’t even know."

Staples said he had to crawl beneath the smoke, and barely had the breath to unlock his door to escape.

The Carroll County Fire Department is investigating the incident as possible arson, and the sheriff’s office says the case could result in attempted murder charges.

On the night of Sept. 10, 2009, four-dozen police crashed the Underwear Night special event at the Atlanta Eagle, slamming patrons to the floor, using homophobic slurs, and arresting and detaining 62 people. Police targeted the gay bar on the pretext of illicit sex and drugs, allegations that were never proven.

The owner of the Eagle, Richard Ramey, went immediately on the offense against the raid, telling the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Sept. 12, 2009, ”Our problem is with the way our customers were treated.”

Nick Koperski, a bar patron present at the time of the raid, was quoted as saying, ”I’m thinking, this is Stonewall. It’s like I stepped into the wrong decade.”

The Atlanta Police Department refused to cooperate with an investigation by the Atlanta Citizens Council.

Charges brought against employees and patrons either failed to win convictions, collapsed for lack of evidence, or were otherwise dismissed, according to a report by EDGE.

Last March, eight employees of the bar were found not guilty of trumped up charges by the Atlanta Police Department in a ruling handed down in Municipal Court. Investigations into the raid found that the Atlanta Police Department did not have a warrant to raid the bar on the night in question. Mandatory revisions to police procedures will be carried out in response to the settlement.

The vindication of the Atlanta Eagle stands in sharp contrast to the outcome of the Fort Worth Police Department’s infamous raid on the Rainbow Lounge just months before the Atlanta debacle.

Like the Georgia raid, all charges against patrons arrested at the popular Fort Worth gay bar have been dropped without comment from the city.

Unlike the Atlanta outcome, however, the Fort Worth Police Department has never issued a sufficient apology (in our opinion) or formally admitted any wrongdoing in the illicit raid on the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, nor has the action of the FWPD ever been deemed wrong by an outside investigation.

This has been in spite of the public action disciplining officers of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) for their part in the raid, and a formal apology issued by the executive of the TABC.

What exempted the FWPD from disciplinary actions similar to the TABC?

Factors contributing to the non-resolution of the Fort Worth police raid may include a less-than-robust defense of bar patrons by the Rainbow Lounge ownership at the time of the bust, and the less aggressive approach Fort Worth gay leaders employed to bring the city and the police department to account.

While there have been laudable actions in response to the Rainbow Lounge raid, such as the establishment of a police liaison with the local LGBT community, and transgender protections added to municipal protection statutes, honesty about the motives and motivators behind the Fort Worth raid remain unspoken and unacknowledged.

While we are glad the city of Fort Worth dropped charges against patrons charged in the arrests the night of the raid, including public intoxication and groping, the harm done by the raid in Cowtown has not been acknowledged by the powers that be, and therefore the LGBTQ community, and the individual Texans directly wronged remain unjustified.

Justice for Atlanta, but how about for Fort Worth?

We guess the mayor of Fort Worth has more control over the courts, the press, and the gay establishment in North Texas than the mayor of Atlanta.

A good thing? You be the judge.

GA VOICE

Counter-protesters at Saturday's KKK rally in Augusta.

"We are here for the Constitution of the United States that this country was founded on, and which we believe is being violated by the actions of Augusta State University," said (self-identified) Imperial Klaliff David Webster, at Saturday's rally. "Why should any institution be allowed to enforce their ethics on anybody?"

The permit said 100 Ku Klux Klan members in hoods would be standing outside the gates of Augusta State University between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Oct. 23 to protest the faculty’s alleged embrace of LGBT issues. [GA Voice]

Instead, one dozen bedraggled-looking men in fatigues marched onto the lawn, shouted for about a half hour and left, leaving over 200 counter-protesters wondering what all the fuss had been about.

Jennifer Keeton, who is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, said she was ordered to undergo a re-education plan that requires her to attend “diversity sensitivity training” when the school told her that her anti-gay beliefs are incompatible with the standards of her desired profession.

Keeton has said in and out class that, according to her Christian beliefs, homosexuality is immoral and a lifestyle choice.

No one in the KKK had been in contact with Keeton, who herself condemned the Klan’s actions and did not attend the event.

Keeton had filed suit in federal court against the school; a judge has refused to block ASU from expelling her if she does not fulfill the plan while the case proceeds.

Bobby Spurlock, the imperial wizard knighthawk and grand dragon of South Carolina and North Carolina, said today the group has met with school officials and plans to protest the school’s treatment of Jennifer Keeton, reports the Augusta Chronicle.

Keeton

Keeton, 24, who is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, said she was ordered to undergo a re-education plan that requires her to attend “diversity sensitivity training,” complete additional remedial reading and write papers to describe their effects on her beliefs, according to a lawsuit filed last July.

Keeton has said in and out class that, according to her Christian beliefs, homosexuality is immoral and a lifestyle choice.

The protest, planned for 1 p.m. on Oct. 23, will be in full dress and located across from the Georgia school’s main entrance. Spurlock said the KKK has not been in contact with Keeton herself.

Pastor Eddie Long

The pastor of an Atlanta mega-church who once described homosexuality as a "spiritual abortion," was cheered by a congregation of 10,000 on Sunday while he fights accusations of sexually abusing four teenage boys in his ministry.

"I am not the man that has been portrayed on television," said Pastor Eddie Long, leader of the New Birth Missionary Baptist church in Georgia, one of America's largest black congregations.

"I've been accused, I'm under attack,." he told his congregation, speaking publicly about the accusations for the first time.

Long, 57, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage and vigorous advocate of sexual abstinence, is facing civil lawsuits claiming he lured the four young men into sexual relationships when they were 17 and 18, rewarding them with gifts of cash, exotic trips, jewelery, cars and electronics.

Long "adamantly denies" the claims, said they are "without merit," and vowed to fight the allegations.

Anthony Flagg, one of the plaintiffs in the case against Long, said he moved in with the Bishop after being arrested of an assault charge when he was 18 years old. According to Flagg's suit, Long would come into his bed at night and the two would engage in sex acts.

Another plaintiff, Maurice Robinson, who was enrolled in the youth academy at age 14, and became the focus of Long's attention. According to the lawsuit, Long and Robinson began engaging in sex acts in 2008 after a trip to New Zealand.

Bishop Long posing in cell phone pictures that were allegedly sent to his accusers.

In another suit, Spencer LeGrande -- a member of New Birth Charlotte, one of Long's satellite churches in Charlotte, NC -- claims that he accompanied Long on a trip to Kenya when he was 17 years old, where he gave him a sleeping pill on the trip, and they engaged in sexual acts.

The plaintiffs -- Flagg, 21, Robinson, 20, LeGrande, 22, and Jamal Parris, 23 -- seek unspecified damages.

The New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has grown since 1987 from 300 to 25,000 members, with satellites as far afield as California. Long reportedly drives a $365,000 Bentley, has a $1.46 million home and was paid $3.1 million between 1997 and 2000 by his charity.

And like many conservative black preachers, Long has openly condemned homosexuality.

In 2004 he led a march in support of a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and his church holds "sexual reorientation" conferences aimed at "curing" gay men and lesbians.

A 2007 article in the Southern Poverty Law Center's magazine called him "one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement."

Alveda King (Photo: Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Speaking from the steps of the Georgia state capitol building, "Dr." (as she refers to herself) Alveda King, emphasized the procreation aspect of the gay marriage debate and voiced her concerns that legalizing gay marriage would mean genocide.

"It is statistically proven that the strongest institution that guarantees procreation and continuity of the generations is marriage between one man and one woman. I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to be extinct and none of us wants to be. We don’t want genocide, we don’t want to destroy the sacred institution of marriage.”

King, daughter of the late slain civil rights activist Rev. A. D. King, also spoke of her family’s commitment to strong marriages, including her uncle and “his lovely wife.”

She made no mention that Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s wife, has spoken out in favor of gay marriage on numerous occasions and was a speaker at Atlanta’s Gay Pride festival in 1996.

(Note: King's doctorate is an honorary degree, presented to her in 2001 by Saint Anselm College, an undergraduate institution.)

The Atlanta rally is latest stop in the NOM's 23-city anti-gay “Summer of Marriage” roadshow, and attracted a crowd of -- wait for it -- about 20 supporters (although some reports say it was as high as 35, but we're not counting the NOM speakers or the media).

The rally was outnumbered, as an estimated 300 gay marriage advocates rights lined the sidewalk across the street from the state capitol building, in a silent counter-protest to the NOM event.

Next stop for the NOM is a rally in Orlando on Sunday. In counter protest, hundreds – maybe thousands – of LGBT citizens and gay rights supporters plan a rally to celebrate and, as they promise in their press release, “spread a message of equality for all Americans.”

Jennifer Keeton, 24, who is pursuing a master's degree in counseling, said she was ordered to undergo a re-education plan that requires her to attend "diversity sensitivity training," complete additional remedial reading and write papers to describe their effects on her beliefs, according to the lawsuit filed last week.

"The school counseling faculty has decided that my views are not acceptable for me or to share with other students," Keeton said in a video statement produced by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

"They have required a remediation plan in which the end result would be me altering my beliefs or being dismissed from the program."

Keeton has said in and out class that, according to her Christian beliefs, homosexuality is immoral and a lifestyle choice.

The ADF, a legal alliance that supports religious freedom, filed the suit for Keeton in U.S. District Court in Augusta. The notoriously anti-gay ADF opposes gay marriage, gay adoption, and established an annual "Day of Truth" to counter what it calls the promotion of the homosexual agenda.

ASU officials have made no comment on the suit, but said its counselor education program is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs, and follows the American School Counselor Association's ethical standards, which specify that counselors in training must "recognize and accept" individual differences, cultural diversity and alternative points of view.

Keeton claimed that despite her beliefs, she would still be able to counsel lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans patients.