A judge orders a Florida county and city to pay $736,000 in legal fees after their bans on "conversion therapy"

lgbt — Gay pride flag. By WMNF News (June 2013).

A federal judge this week ordered Palm Beach County and the city of Boca Raton to pay nearly $737,000 in legal fees and costs after an appeals court blocked bans on the controversial practice known as “conversion therapy.”

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg approved a magistrate’s recommendation to award $736,227 in attorney fees and $659 in costs to lawyers who represented marriage and family therapists Robert Otto and Julie Hamilton in a challenge to the constitutionality of ordinances that banned conversion therapy.

Rosenberg’s order Wednesday said the county and city will share the payments.

The ordinances barred therapists from providing treatment or counseling that is designed to change minors’ sexual orientation or gender identity.

Critics of such therapy say it harms minors who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

But a federal appeals court said the ordinances violated the rights of therapists who want to provide such treatment or counseling.