The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has previously called on state and territory governments to follow the lead of Victoria, the ACT and Queensland and outlaw coercive ‘conversion’ practices.
Good news! Today, Members of Parliament worked together to pass our government’s legislation banning conversion therapy – and it is now headed to the Senate. We’ll keep working to make sure this abhorrent and unacceptable practice is prohibited in Canada.
Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault, who is also a special adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on LGBTIQ+ issues, likened the practices to “torture”.
He said: “This stuff was and is happening in dark places in our country and it has to stop.
“Nobody can consent to torture.”
Conversion therapy is an umbrella term for interventions to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, based on a widely discounted belief that such a change is possible.
They are often clandestine and, apart from psychological treatments with contested evidence behind them, can also involve electric shocks, beatings, drugs or even exorcism.
Queensland and the ACT were the first jurisdictions to ban the practices in healthcare settings and Victoria’s legislation, which passed the upper house in February, also covered religious settings.
It bans “carrying out a religious practice including but not limited to, a prayer based practice, a deliverance practice or an exorcism”.
Source: AAP
AMA President Omar Khorshid, speaking in November, said: “Conversion practices are a blatant example of the discrimination faced by LGBTQIA+ people in Australia and have no place in our society.”
Mr Khorshid’s call was part of a wider push, and included a request for the Australian Medical Council to include LGBTIQ+ health knowledge as a graduate outcome for medical students.
Other versions of Canada’s bill were introduced by Mr Trudeau’s Liberals Party in the past two years, but failed to get through voting before parliament was dissolved, including in August for snap elections.
Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti said it was an “important day for Canadians”.
He added: “It’s an important day to be who you are.
“It’s an important day to love who you want to love. And it’s an important day to express yourself and to understand yourself the way you are and the way you want to be.”
LGBTIQ+ Australians seeking support with mental health can contact QLife on 1800 184 527 or visit qlife.org.au. ReachOut.com also has a list of support services.
Intersex Australians seeking support can visit Intersex Peer Support Australia at isupport.org.au.
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