The Equalities Minister has proposed an ambitious timetable for legislating against ‘conversion practices’.
Roderic O’Gorman TD explained to Gay Community News (GCN) that he hopes to see a new law passed in 2024, following a period of pre-legislative scrutiny this autumn.
The Minister has updated the Cabinet on his plans, and a Bill is expected soon.
The Bill is demanded by LGBT activists, to outlaw abusive attempts to change someone’s ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity’. O’Gorman says he wants to outlaw “deeply harmful” practices. But it is unclear whether any such abuses actually take place in Ireland. Laws protecting people from abuse and coercion already exist.
Instead, conversion laws in other jurisdictions have seen limitations placed on the ability of Christians to uphold biblical sexual ethics, or for parents to bring up their children in the faith. Many questions have been asked about the inclusion of the flawed thinking of ‘gender identity’ in the Bill, which is likely to lead to one-way pressure to transition.
A ‘conversion therapy’ Bill was previously introduced in 2018, although it failed to pass before running out of Parliamentary time.
Very interestingly, O’Gorman let slip in his interview with GCN that Ireland’s Attorney General had been concerned about the previous Bill. That tallies with comments from the Government at the time admitting legal advice had been received, saying that the Bill’s wording was “not clear enough in its language”.
This time around, O’Gorman is hoping the legislation will be “constitutionally secure”.
Again, this seems to be a rather unguarded comment on the risks of legislating in this complex area. Human rights guaranteed both by the Irish Constitution and the European Convention are evidently at stake.
If O’Gorman can produce a Bill that genuinely protects people’s rights, it is unlikely to please those demanding it in the first place. They seek a ban that includes restrictions to religious freedom and freedom of speech. They want a law that interferes with the constitutional right of parents to provide for the moral education of their children.
Ultimately, this looks more like a law designed to force the population to agree with one ideological viewpoint, with orthodox believers and feminists alike cast out in the cold.
Recognising that concerns would continue to be raised about the legislation, O’Gorman commissioned research on the prevalence of conversion therapy in Ireland last year.
The resulting report was astonishing in many ways. Despite false media claims that it had ‘confirmed’ the practices take place in Ireland, the study barely found any evidence whatsoever.
The largest and most significant part of the research did not look at a single case of conversion therapy in Ireland. The study admits none of its Irish participants had been exposed to any such practices. O’Gorman says the practices take place in Ireland only “rarely” – but is he being entirely honest about how absent the evidence is?
The second part of the study was equally shocking in its lack of evidence. The researchers admit that they spoke to only five self-professed ‘survivors’ of conversion therapy in Ireland.
In one of these instances, an interviewee reported how they had experienced “completely self-created and self-imposed conversion therapy of trying just different formulas of prayers and litanies and different devotions and things”.
Apparently these are the sort of actions the country’s best research has uncovered. How is O’Gorman going to legislate against someone praying for themselves? It cannot be done.
Republic of Ireland possible timetable
James KENNEDY works in public affairs for The Christian Institute, which has over 60,000 supporters in the UK and Ireland. James is part of the Let Us Pray campaign, against over-broad conversion therapy laws in the UK and Ireland.