The NSW government’s plans to ban gay conversion therapy will be expanded to include making it illegal to change or suppress a person identifying as trans or gender diverse.
Attorney-General Michael Daley has confirmed the government is pushing ahead with its own new laws, rather than backing independent MP Alex Greenwich’s bill later this month.
Before winning the state election, Premier Chris Minns promised to outlaw gay conversion practices, without explicitly extending his commitment to the trans community.
A leaked discussion paper, however, shows that the government wants to make illegal any activities attempting to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and this would be elevated to a crime if these practices were likely to cause harm. It also proposed to criminalise taking someone out of the state to participate in conversion practices.
Relationships of LGBTQ people with parents, friends, work colleagues, schools, health professionals and religious groups will all be covered by the proposed laws.
Daley said the form of the prohibition needed to be carefully considered, and the government’s intention was to “strike a careful balance between prohibiting harmful practices and ensuring freedom of religious belief”.
[Ed: what about beliefs based on science?!!]
A government working group has begun closed consultations with key stakeholders including national LGBTQ group Equality Australia, LGBTQ health organisation ACON, and the Catholic Church that will close at the end of this month. [Ed: Feminist groups are not being consulted needless to say].
A coalition of women’s groups that argue for rights based on biological sex rather than gender identity has rallied to fight the proposed changes, setting up a website and crowdfunding a billboard in Belmore in south-west Sydney that says: “Sex self ID gives men & boys the key to women & girls’ changing rooms & sports teams. Contact your NSW MP now. Say no to sex self ID!”
Kit Kowalski, co-founder of one of the groups, Women’s Rights Network Australia, said she believed the reason for the targeted consultation was “to limit debate because there was broad social consensus that gay conversion therapy was bad, but gender identity was more contentious”.
Source: NSW gay conversion therapy ban to extend to gender identity, transgender suppression