The ACT’s Health Minister has vowed to ban gay conversion therapies, following the introduction of laws of a similar nature in Victoria.

The declaration increases pressure on Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt to tackle the issue on a national scale.

“The ACT government will ban gay conversion therapy. It is abhorrent and completely inconsistent with the inclusive values of Canberrans,” Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris told Fairfax Media.

It is understood that department staff have been asked to work quickly on legislation to ban the practice. According to the Canberra Times the health minister recently met people who have been subjected to the practice.

Chris Csabs shared his experience of attending a church based program Living Waters which claimed to cure people of homosexuality. The Living Waters program has subsequently closed down and the church has apologised for hosting it.

Earlier this year Victoria introduced legislation outlawing programs that claim to be able to alter a person’s sexuality from homosexual to heterosexual. The Victoria government has recently launched an inquiry into the practice.

OIP Staff