Description: Licensed counselors, along with the state of Missouri, are suing Kansas City and Jackson County over ordinances that force counselors to violate their free speech and push children to reject biological reality.
8th Circuit weighs whether government belongs in the counseling room
ADF attorneys ask court to end Kansas City, county ordinances censoring counselor-client conversations
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025
ST. LOUIS – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed their opening brief Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit on behalf of two Missouri licensed counselors. Wyatt Bury and Pamela Eisenrich are challenging ordinances in Kansas City and Jackson County that violate their freedom of speech by censoring private conversations with their clients on gender identity and sexuality. ADF is appealing a July 2025 decision from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri partially upholding the ordinances as applied to the counselors.
“Kansas City’s and Jackson County’s ordinances allow counselors to push kids down the path of gender transition, often leading to harmful drugs and surgeries. But it doesn’t allow compassionate counselors like Wyatt and Pamela to talk with kids to help them accept their bodies—even when that is the client’s express goal or the reason they seek the counselors’ advice,” said ADF Senior Counsel Bryan Neihart. “This is censorship, pure and simple. The government is picking sides, promoting gender ideology, and banning conversations it dislikes. We are hopeful the court will uphold counselors’ freedom of speech and young people’s ability to set their own goals of living at peace with their bodies.”
In 2019, Kansas City passed an ordinance that prohibits counselors from having private, voluntary, and honest conversations with their clients on gender identity and sexual orientation that the city disfavors. Jackson County passed a similar ordinance in 2023. These ordinances interfere with the counselors’ conversations with their clients and force them to adopt the government’s view of these topics in violation of their religious beliefs. Because of the ordinances, the counselors are often self-censoring their speech with clients and turning away potential clients to avoid significant penalties.
ADF attorneys explain that the ordinances stop families from receiving counseling rooted in biological truth—even when children and families want this counseling. Instead, the ordinances force conversations that push children to live inconsistent with their sex. In that way, the ordinances prohibit counsel in only direction: for example, counselors are free to steer a young person toward identifying as the opposite sex but prohibit conversations that aim to help a young person embrace his or her sex.
Nineteen states, religious-liberty advocates, and other organizations showed strong support for the counselors in friend-of-the-court briefs filed with the 8th Circuit.
ADF attorneys are also representing Colorado counselor Kaley Chiles in a similar lawsuit at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mike Whitehead and Jonathan Whitehead, two of more than 5,000 attorneys in the ADF Attorney Network, are serving as local counsel on behalf of the counselors in this matter.
- Pronunciation guide: Neihart (NYE’-hart)
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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