Equality Bill | NSW, Australia State Parliament

Submission for the protection of LGBTIQA+ people from attempts to reject, change or suppress their orientation and/or gender identity.

1 July 2022

Affirmation

United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Article 1 states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) people are human beings and as such are entitled to every right and privilege afforded to others. We all have the right to be treated equally, no matter what our sexual orientation or gender identity.

Ignorance, misinformation and lack of understanding have impacted the lives of LGBTQ people for decades, and has contributed to violence, discrimination and harm.

LGBTQ people have the right to live authentically, safely and free from discrimination and harm.

What is Conversion “Therapy”/Practice?

Several definitions have been offered. To summarise, these are common elements:

• First, it is based on the false belief that a non-heterosexual, transgender or queer identity is abnormal and the result of damaged development.
• Second, conversion “therapy” can involve a variety of practices including personal prayer, informal or formal spiritual counselling, by qualified or unqualified individuals, face to face or online formal programs and support groups.
• Third, the goal of these practices is to change, reject, eliminate or suppress a gay, lesbian or bisexual person’s orientation/identity, or keep transgender individuals from transitioning from their birth gender.

Conversion “therapy” is always about conformity to a single belief about sex being only between man and woman within marriage and a binary belief about gender (God created male and female).

Conversion “therapy” core beliefs

• No-one is born gay/lesbian/bi/trans
• Being gay/lesbian/bi/trans is the result of wrong development, personal trauma or a choice
• Being gay/lesbian/bi/trans is unnatural/abnormal
• Acting on gay/lesbian/bisexual desires in sinful
• Same-sex relationships/marriage are against God’s revealed order
• Conformity to heterosexuality and male/female genders provides happiness and fulfilment
• Rejection of heterosexuality and male/female genders will create a lesser life and problems

The foundational beliefs of the program were that everyone is born heterosexual. People become homosexuals through lack of attachment to the same-sex parent, over devotion by the opposite-sex parent, or an outcome of same-sex sexual abuse for males and opposite-sex sexual abuse for females. You are flawed, broken etc, but God can heal, deliver you and set you free to be as He intended. The program included strong gender role conformity, which not only included daily activities but also strict dress standards. Prayer and Bible study were daily activities, along with an intense church weekly program. Living within the 24/7 monitored environment meant I was protected from outside temptations in “the world” so that I wouldn’t “fall into sin”. Within that two- year period, I would become transformed in my mind enough and strong enough in Christ’s power to venture into the outside world and live a normal life as a husband and father. The end goal had been my focus since my conversion in 1969. I was desperate to be “normal”.

The leadership was emotionally mentally abusive, and a series of events left me drained of motivation. Before the first 12 months were up, I left, believing and hoping that God and I could sort out my problem outside the oppressive environment of the residential community.

Fast forward from my residential “ex-gay” experience, over the next 20 years I married, had two lovely daughters and became one of Australia’s most famous Pentecostal ministers, preaching to thousands weekly in the country’s growing megachurches. I hadn’t turned from gay to straight, I became what I refer to as a “situational heterosexual”. My homosexuality never went away; it was a constant, private internal struggle.

At 40, I fell in love with a man. This was a huge reality check. The cloak of denial I’d wrapped myself in for over 20 years was taken away and I realised that the years of prayer, fasting, exorcisms and 16 years of marriage had achieved nothing. I realised my sexuality was not just about sex, but it was about love, intimacy, tenderness, affection and, for the first time in my life, I wanted it.

The scandal and public humiliation that followed were devastating. I resigned from the ministry and walked away from everything; family, friends, church, and faith believing that there was no compatibility with these and my newfound acceptance of self. Even though I had accepted my sexuality, deep down inside, I still considered I would probably go to hell.

I buried my past experiences as they were too traumatic to think about and got on with my life. None of my new gay friends knew of my previous history. I was too ashamed to talk about it. I did however find resolution of faith and sexuality around seven years later.

The trauma of my experiences, including conversion “therapy”, remained buried.

Two things to note

Many others’ journeys may have been less, but the same insidious, foundational beliefs of the Christian residential program have remained the core beliefs of the LGBTQ Christian conversion movement for over five decades. This has been from the “change is possible” message, through the “rejection of a gay or transgender identity” phase to the more recent celibacy model. This can be clearly seen in Figure 1. Whatever the context the beliefs always harm.

It should also be noted that the core beliefs of the ex-gay/reparative/conversion “therapy” movement are the very same that ALL mental health organisations and practitioners, after three decades of failure, rejected in the early 70s. Yes……. theories rejected half a century ago.

Supporting conversion “therapy” survivors

Initially, most of us thought we were alone. It was in the late 90s, thanks to the internet, survivors began connecting. These were people who’d been a part of what were known as “ex-gay” ministries/organisations under the umbrella of Exodus in the US.

Yahoo survivor support group

I knew there were groups in the US that supported survivors, or “ex-ex-gays” as we called ourselves then, but nothing in Australia. Whilst I had been a closet “ex-gay”, I always knew of the movement, and since my faith/sexuality resolution began monitoring their activities in Australia. In 2000, I founded an online Yahoo group to connect survivors called Exex-gay which grew to over 400 members. It was during the five years managing the group that I became intensely aware of not only the lives lost through suicide, but the suffering survivors had gone through and the ongoing and long-term mental health impacts of ex-gay/reparative/conversion “therapy”.

A Life of Unlearning and an avalanche of responses from survivors

In 2004, my autobiography, A Life of Unlearning, was released. A story, such as mine, high-profile preacher, conversion “therapy” survivor, had never been told in Australia before. It became a bestseller and sold out twice. From day one, emails began to arrive in my inbox, often beginning with the words “your story is my story” and then the sender poured out their hearts about their own experiences. The vast majority of these readers had never told anyone before about their experiences. Now they had someone who would understand and listen. I found myself often crying at the computer as I read another horrifying story of the way people had been treated by conversion “therapy” leaders, church leaders, Christian family, and friends. I responded to every email and, with many, had an ongoing dialogue. The number I have engaged with is incalculable, but over the last 18 years it’s in the thousands.

Freedom2b online support and chapter meetings

It became increasingly obvious that a support network was needed for these people. In 2005, I co-founded Freedom2b and managed it for 6 years. During that time, we saw it grow from a dozen in my lounge room to chapter meetings in several states, plus an active online forum of over 1,600 members and 350 people had shared their personal stories. Many of these had been through formal conversion “therapy” programs whilst others had been impacted by the core beliefs of the movement.

To summarise, over the last 20 years through the Yahoo group, readers of A Life of Unlearning, and Freedom2b, I have worked with an estimated 4,000 conversion “therapy” survivors who’ve been through formal programs. Additionally, the number of people experiencing faith/sexuality conflict because of the beliefs that heterosexuality is God’s design, normal, natural and marriage can only be between a man and a woman, that I’ve engaged with is immeasurable.

I believe that within Australia there probably is not another with as much experience in this area as myself and, therefore, can speak on the topic with a great deal of authority.

Extensive research and the history of harm

At the time, I was unaware of the extensive academic research conducted in this area for at least a decade. Much had been published in respected mental health professional journals and publications. The alarm bells of the harm caused in attempting to change one’s sexual orientation was reinforced with every new study. Because of the controversial nature of the movement, in 2007 the American Psychological Association set up a task force to review and report on sexual reorientation “therapies”.

The 2009 report a list of harms included:

• Decreased self-esteem and authenticity to others.
• Increased self-hatred and negative perceptions of homosexuality.
• Confusion, depression, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, shame, social withdrawal, and suicidality.
• Anger at and a sense of betrayal by SOCE (sexual orientation change efforts) providers.
• An increase in substance abuse and high-risk sexual behaviours.
• A feeling of being dehumanised and untrue to self.
• A loss of faith.
• A sense of having wasted time and resources. Interpreting SOCE failures as individual failures was also reported that individuals blamed themselves for the failure (i.e., weakness, and lack of effort, commitment, faith, or worthiness in god’s eyes.

In 2012, the Pan American Health Organisation (PANO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a combined statement titled “Therapies” to change sexual orientation lack medical justification and threaten health. In the statement PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago said: “Since homosexuality is not a disorder or a disease, it does not require a cure. There is no medical indication for changing sexual orientation. Practices known as “reparative therapy” or “conversion therapy” represent “a serious threat to the health and well-being—even the lives—of affected people.”

In 2015, The Columbia Law School brought together a number of peer-reviewed studies published over the last 30 years that addressed the question of whether conversion therapy (CT) can alter sexual orientation without causing harm. Thirteen of those studies included primary research. Of those, 12 concluded that CT is ineffective and/or harmful, finding links to depression, suicidality, anxiety, social isolation and decreased capacity for intimacy. Only one study concluded that sexual orientation change efforts could succeed—although only in a minority of its participants, and the study has several limitations: its entire sample self-identified as religious and it is based on self-reports, which can be biased and unreliable.

Australia

I believe the first paper to be written on conversion “therapy” in Australia was in 2010 by a Baptist minister, Matt Glover, as a part of his theological studies. His 39-page paper A Pastoral Response to the Homosexuality in the Church focused very much on the ineffectiveness of Exodus International and the harm conversion “therapy” was causing. In his introduction, Glover states, “The following was written as part of my theological studies and in response to the pain and suffering I have seen in my journey with the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender) community.”

A few other Australian studies and papers followed. In 2018, Ambassadors & Bridge Builders International released “Conversion Therapy in Australia – The state of the nation”. It was the first comprehensive (30-page) Australian report on the movement and gave an overview of the history, revealed the major players and highlighted some of the challenges for a potential ban on LGBTQ conversion practices. The paper also revealed that the Australian Christian Counsellors Association had recently updated their code of ethics to read “Counsellors shall not do therapeutic interventions aimed at modifying or changing the sexual orientation of clients, as distinct from treating recognised sexual disorders”. This was incredibly significant, but it seems most people missed the significance. I’ve never seen it mentioned elsewhere.

This was followed later in the year by “Preventing Harm, Promoting Justice: Responding to LGBT conversion therapy in Australia” which revealed the lived experiences of 15 LGBT people who have struggled to reconcile their sexuality and transgender identities with the beliefs and practices of their religious community. The report, a joint initiative of La Trobe University, the Human Rights Law Centre and Gay & Lesbian Health Victoria, provided a comprehensive history of the conversion movement in Australia, together with legal analysis and recommendations for reform.

The above academic work was followed in 2021 with Healing Spiritual Harms: Supporting Recovery from LGBTQA+ Change and Suppression Practices. The abstract clearly states the importance of the research project.

Psychological research has demonstrated that LGBTQA+ change and suppression efforts do not reorient a person’s sexuality or gender identity and an increasing body of literature has documented the negative impacts that these pressures and attempts have on LGBTQA+ people’s lives. Little formal research evidence exists regarding what supports are needed to enhance the recovery of people who have been harmed by LGBTQA+ change and suppression practices. This study investigated survivors’ experiences of recovery through interviews with survivors and with mental health practitioners. It is the first such study internationally to include research with mental health practitioners and has a significantly more diverse cohort of survivor participants than previous studies. The report provides a detailed account of survivors’ support needs. Its findings are intended to inform health practitioners and others working to meet the support needs of LGBTQA+ people who are recovering from the harms associated with LGBTQA+ change and suppression practices.

After three decades of research one can conclude that;

1. no one changes their sexual orientation and,
2. attempts to do so are harmful and sometimes devastating.

This is why we need legislation to protect vulnerable LGBTQ people from the harms of these practices and the core beliefs.

Additionally, there is a global movement in this direction. As of June 2022, thirteen countries have bans on conversion therapy. In Australia, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT have legislation in place, with others moving in the same direction. The Victorian legislation is the most comprehensive. In 2020, the United Nations Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity called for a global ban on conversion therapy.

In 2014 New South Wales could have been the first state to ban these practices, once again initiated by Alex Greenwich. Opposition came from predictable sources of the time like Fred Nile and the Salt Shakers. We lodged a 17-page submission supporting the ban. Sadly, that push was unsuccessful.

New South Wales, now is the time.