A host of Christian and free speech groups have warned of the dangers presented by the government’s Conversion Practices Bill as parliamentary scrutiny began earlier this week.
The controversial bill says that conversion practices that cause “serious harm”, “serious alarm or distress” or that are “abusive” - including applying “psychological or emotional pressure” - would become criminal offences.
The proposed law also defines a conversion practice as “any conduct … with the intention of …causing an individual … to have or not to have, [or] to believe they have or do not have, a …particular sexual orientation … or a particular transgender identity (which includes identifying as ‘neither male nor female or as not solely male or female’)”.
The Christian Medical Fellowship, Christian Concern, the Coalition for Marriage, the Free Speech Union and The Christian Institute have all raised serious concerns about the bill.
The Christian Institute is threatening to pursue a judicial review, should the bill make it onto the statute books.
In a lengthy post on the bill, the Christian Medical Fellowship warned that loving parents who decline to affirm a child’s new proclaimed gender identity, or who just urge them to reflect on their life, could be deemed to be engaging in “abusive” “conversion practices.
Similarly a person who seeks prayer or counselling from a member of the clergy due to unwanted same-sex attraction, could later decide that the prayer and counselling they asked for was “abusive”.
“People must be able to speak truthfully and respectfully without fear of criminal investigation”,, the Christian Medical Fellowship said.
Also taking issue with the bill was former homosexual Andrew Comiskey, who wrote for Christian Concern that the bill was an attack on the right of people to seek the counselling or therapeutic help that they desire.
“Who is doing the moralizing here? No-one is imposing change-friendly therapy on a person who seeks ‘gay’ or ‘trans’-identification. But activists, driven by faulty assumptions about what is best for others, are seeking to eradicate what for some persons is the only way they desire to work out their sexuality," he said.
He further spoke out against the “demonising” of both Christian caregivers and those who seek their help.
The Free Speech Union has warned that the bill is a serious threat to free speech and religious freedom.
“It will criminalise well-intentioned conversations between parents or therapists and gender-confused children, as well as religious leaders sharing their faith’s teachings with their congregations," it said.
"Parents could face up to five years in prison for trying to dissuade their children from embarking on dangerous medical pathways that are life-changing and irreversible.
“This is one of the most illiberal and intrusive bills to come before MPs. It will divide families, poison conversations around the dinner table, ruin relationships and harm the very people it claims to protect.”
Similar views were shared by Tony Rucinski, chief executive of the Coalition for Marriage: “This is a law to placate activists, restrict lawful speech and threaten anyone who doesn't submit to the contested LGBT orthodoxy. That's not why we make laws. Drop the Bill.”
Echoing all of these concerns was The Christian Institute, which added that it had instructed solicitors “to prepare the ground for a potential judicial review of any new laws on ‘conversion therapy’ that restrict religious freedom”.
The proposed bill is currently in the pre-legislative scrutiny stage. A cross-party parliamentary committee is due to give its report on the bill by 22 January, after which the government will consider the committee's recommendations and decide how to proceed with a final bill.
