Conversion Practices

The Petition of the undersigned residents of Tasmania draws to the attention of the House:

• LGBTIQA+ people are not "broken" and do not need to be "healed".

• Research shows one in twenty LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians are survivors of conversion practices and these survivors have very high rates of depression, PTSD and attempted suicide.

• All reputable health bodies including the Australian Medical Association condemn conversion practices because they are based on false and misleading claims about sexual orientation and gender identity, involve discredited pseudo-science, do not work and inflict great harm.

• The Tasmanian Law Reform Institute (TLRI) has recommended a prohibition on conversion practices.

• Most other Australian states and territories have already banned conversion practices.

• There is no evidence from interstate of any unintended consequences.

• People of faith will be free to preach and pray, parents will be free to guide their children, doctors will be free to treat patients within existing clinical guidelines, as long as they are not inflicting conversion practices.

• Informed consent to conversion practices is impossible because they never come with warnings about their quack pseudo-science and the harm they inflict.

• Proposed legislation draws from the TLRI recommendations, best practice interstate, community consultation and the advice of conversion survivors.

• Proposed legislation provides for the kind of education and other prevention measures essential to bringing conversion to an end.

Your Petitioners therefore request the House to support legislation that will prohibit conversion practices.