Naive and dangerous: Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill will leave counsellors, social workers and teachers in a vulnerable position

A summary of the Select Committee for the Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill was released yesterday. The Bill sought “to prevent harm caused by…practices…that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression”.

LAVA believes the summary’s conclusions are naive and dangerous. There was no recognition of the grave concerns voiced in many, if not most, of the record number of more than 100.000 submissions received.

LAVA welcomes the changes that awards personal opinion some protection. However, most of the substantive concerns remain:

The evidence of social contagion that lies in young people’s decision to “transition”, which leads to lifelong medication and dangerous and unnecessary surgery was ignored.

No change was made to the inclusion of “gender identity” and “gender expression” despite extensive evidence that most same-sex identified children change their minds at the onset of puberty if they are not socially “transitioned” and medicated.

To clarify what Conversion Therapy even is, law makers added some examples, but these have raised the level of concern rather than reduced it. Most worryingly, a single incident of alleged Conversion Therapy could result in serious legal consequences. These could be used, for example, to punish partners in divorce proceedings or against others who are sceptical about “gender” medicine. The rules would allow for entrapment where recordings of private conversations could be used in evidence.

It does appear law makers have not considered the risk and implications for those who work closely with children and adolescents, i.e., counsellors, social workers and teachers. Even though they are registered health practitioners, they are not protected.

Finally, the bill will create serious tensions between what might be considered ethical - investigating a child’s medical/mental health history to understand the reasons for their wish to “transition” and the legal constraints the government places on medical professionals to ensure best practice.

LAVA will continue to point out the shortcomings and pitfalls of this Bill.

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