Fix conversion laws before banning conversion practices

Safeguarding Children in Schools Australia and Women Speak Tasmania will be calling on the new Government once elected, to urgently review existing conversion laws before debating any anti conversion Bill put before parliament. Today we have released our Submission to the draft Justice Miscellaneous (Conversion Practices) Bill 2024.

In principle, we support laws that prevent conversion practices for sexual orientation, however, there are important considerations to be made when drafting new laws when Government have failed to examine serious and adverse health implications of existing laws regarding gender identity and sexual orientation.

In January 2024 The World Health Organisation released a statement (see attached Submission and here: https://segm.org/world-health-organization-transgender-guidelines) that highlights serious questions concerning current standards of care being used by the Tasmanian Gender Service and the social/medical transitioning of children in Tasmanian schools.

While we recognise that the Bill does have exclusions that protect freedom of speech/opinion/belief and that these exclusions are essential to protect civil liberties and political expression, this does not address the core problems of the serious inconsistencies with what we call existing conversion laws.

The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment Act 2001 (TAS) – sex self ID law) is having a chilling effect on freedom of speech and political expression for anyone wishing to contest these laws and the harms that have resulted for those with issues concerning sexual orientation, gender identity, conversion practices and the conflict over sex based rights.We urge the new Government to defer debate on any anti conversion Bill and establish a

Parliamentary Committee to:

– Review the health and human rights impacts on the Tasmanian community from the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment Act 2001 (TAS).

– Hear testimonies at both public and in camera hearings from children, parents, teachers, health professionals, law experts, the LGB and TQ+ communities.

– Investigate: international developments in models of care for those struggling with gender dysphoria; whether the Tasmanian Gender Service is providing the best model of care; implementation of monitoring and reporting guidelines for the Tasmanian Gender Service to enable publicly available data consistent with Privacy laws.

-ENDS-