LGBTI rights advocates, and the Australian Christian Lobby, have both welcomed the Labor Party’s new policy position on conversion therapy.
At the Labor party’s national conference on MOnday the party adopted a formal policy of opposing conversion therapy but rather than advocating for criminal penalties they opted to change the proposed policy in favour of supporting of those affected by the practice and a commitment to “develop strategies to work with communities to prevent such harm and promote justice for LGBTIQ people affected by them”.
Labor Senator Louise Pratt told Buzzfeed that the party had chosen to change its stance because research had shown that criminalisation was likely to drive the practice further underground.
The best advice is that criminalisation won’t work and could make the situation worse and drive the practice underground,” she said.
“Support and wellbeing of survivors is, and always should be, at the heart of this issue,” said Anna Brown (pictured top image – left), incoming CEO of Equality Australia and Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre.
“It is imperative that there are stronger laws and support for survivors, and also education about the harm caused by the cultural ideas and messaging prevalent within faith communities.
“From the 1990’s we’ve seen conversion ideology mainstreamed within Christian churches and become a broader model of spiritual healing for so-called sexual brokenness.
“These increasingly pervasive and less formalised models of conversion activities need to be tackled with a multi-faceted approach combining legal regulation, targeted education, awareness raising within faith based communities, and specialised support for survivors,” Brown said.
The spokesperson for Melbourne’s Brave Network also welcomed the decision.
“The Brave Network Melbourne and the authors of the SOCE Survivors Statement have consistently emphasised the role of ideology and religious culture in driving the ex-gay/ex-trans/conversion movement,” Nathan Despott the co-leader of Brave Network Melbourne said.
“We are delighted that the ALP’s new platform recognises that a broad strategy is required to combat the conversion movement, rather than just a limited focus on formal therapeutic activities,” Despott said.
“We hope that the ALP will adopt the strategies in both the SOCE Survivor Statement and the Human Rights Law Centre report, including civil penalties for gay conversion delivered in a formal context,” said Chris Csabs, co-author of the SOCE Survivor Statement.
“It’s fantastic that the ALP has listened to survivors and researchers. Changing their policy to reflect that ‘gay conversion’ is broader than therapeutic practices and acknowledging that the ideology behind ‘gay conversion’ is also harmful, is an important step toward protecting the community,” Csabs said.
The change in working of the party’s policy has also been welcomed by the Australian Christian Lobby. Managing Director Martin Illes said Labor had changed their stance due to his organisation’s arguments against the position that was originally proposed.
“The ALP’s decision to back away from criminalising LGBT conversion therapies is welcome news to religious communities and parents.” Illes said in a statement.
The Australian Christian Lobby argued that the practice no longer existed among Christian religious bodies in Australia, and accused Equality Australia of lying about the issue.
“There are no Christian communities in Australia in 2018 who are engaged in coercive, abusive, or otherwise demeaning practises. The recent suggestion by Equality Australia that such practises are ‘pervasive’ is simply untrue.”
“Religious communities and parents are nonetheless relieved because nobody quite knows what ‘conversion therapy’ means once written into policy.”
Illes said the original policy would have limited the ability of people of faith to follow their beliefs because the concept of change is central to Christian teachings.
“The ALP’s previous platform expanded the term to include mere claims that sexual orientation or gender identity can change. It singled out religious communities who make such claims and said parents who did the same could be deemed domestic and psychological abusers.”
“The themes of conversion and change are foundational to the Christian gospel as it applies to all people, regardless of their identity or personal attributes.” Iles said.
OIP Staff
