Conversion therapy ban recognises and protects people just as they are

It reminded me that back in the day, the nuns at my school would tie the left hand of a child behind their back and force them to be right-handed - "just like everyone else". Except there were numerous kids who were left-handed. Being left or right-handed no longer matters, we all accept we are born with that feature pre-programmed, so to speak. It is simply a species variation in the wonderful group that is humankind!

I still think about the kids who were marginalised, in some cases subjected to corporal punishment (if they resisted) and in all cases trussed up to prevent their natural inclination to use their left hand. There was little to no consideration of long-term harm to their confidence, personal security, or academic attainment. We all just had to be the same. But by whose definition?

This is a milestone week in the ACT, and it has encouraged some predictably strident and tritely robotic voices to invade an otherwise civil discussion. The government is putting human rights above politics, and that has disturbed and perturbed those who like to be in control of others. So while the ACT government is taking positive and active steps to arrest the negative reach and control of practitioners and instigators of so called "gay conversion therapy", others are threatened by legislation which prohibits and makes illegal this needless, repugnant and ultimately harmful practice.

To keep their sense of control over others, we see the proposed NSW Religious Freedom and Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill. This is propaganda to rally the uncertain and an attempt to re-assert the place of organised religion in modern society. The NSW bill is cloaked in the guise of freedom for some at the expense of others. Can't we be free to be as we were born - with all the innate characteristics already uploaded when that sperm fertilised that egg?

Then there is the alarmist, panic-filled, fear-focused campaign focusing on gender identity - including an opinion piece in yesterday's Canberra Times by Patrick Parkinson and Philip Morris. Like many of the arguments put forward to refocus this away from the actual issue of valuing the human as conceived, this piece relied on the underlying assumption that the vast majority of young people who experience gender identity issues are simply in need of some counselling in order for those issues to resolve themselves.

To back their assumption up, Parkinson and Morris point to a journal article from 2016 which is known for relying mainly on dated source material, including studies from the 1950s to the 1970s - a time when differences in sexuality were assessed as a form of mental illness, when we thought it OK to remove Indigenous children from their families (because whites knew best and assimilation was valued over 80,000 years of culture), when we thought young mothers should not be allowed to keep their babies if they were unmarried, and when folks with disability could be placed in institutions for the term of their natural lives - locked away from the sight of all the mainstream "normal" people.

Happily, we have evolved. Our thinking is more informed, our practices toward each other are more respectful and tolerant of individual difference. We understand, appreciate, and celebrate species variation which results in individuality and diversity. Diversity of skin colour, musical ability, hair colour, sporting prowess - and yes, gender identification and sexuality. Give or take the odd fundamentalist-leaning electorate, the vote for marriage equality showed a large majority of Australians accept people as they are.

And if we protect this practice of denial of people's nature, what do we get?

The SOGICE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts) Survivors go further than the ACT government, and describe "conversion therapy" as any formal or informal practice, activity or treatment (in any setting) that seeks, or is used, to suppress, eliminate or change a person's sexual or romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, where that change is deemed necessary due to the instigator's belief in or adherence to conversion ideology.

Canberra "conversion therapy" survivors have described being subjected to exorcisms - being beaten about the head and body with a Christian bible, or being held underwater for extended periods of time on multiple occasions. Some were encouraged to "choose to be straight", and were told that praying to be straight, getting married to someone of the opposite gender and having children would "fix the problem".

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Chris Csabs is one such survivor, who attended an "ex-gay ministry" in Canberra, and you can listen to his story on the Internet. He describes the incalculable damage to his self-esteem and mental health caused to him by conversion therapy, which ultimately left him suicidal. Thankfully Chris was able to overcome the trauma he suffered, and is now an advocate for survivors of this needless practice.

Let's be clear, "conversion therapy" is far from therapeutic. It has no scientific rigour and constitutes fraud. It attempts to crudely and cruelly override the innate sexuality and/ or gender identity of a human being. The practice uses a range of unproven psychological, physical or spiritual strategies which are damaging to the wellbeing and personal security of the individuals who are targeted.

"Conversion therapy" is not a mutual practice; it involves individuals being subjected to strategies to control what is instinctive. It is coercive and manipulative and is born from the need of one group to dominate and have power over another group.

Why is it that after all the campaigns about diversity and its great value to the community that some still need to control others who by nature (not by choice) are simply different to the controller's sense of "normal"?

Diversity ACT Community Services is proud to be one of the organisations to affirm the SOGICE Survivor statement. We join the ACT government in our abhorrence of practices which seek to change or suppress an individual's gender identity or sexual orientation and are delighted at the commitment from the ACT government to prohibit these practices in the territory.

For mine, this is evolution (of thinking) protecting creation.