Below is a letter Women Speak Tasmania sent to Members of Parliament after the Tasmania State Election
Dear Member of Parliament,
We would like to congratulate you on your success in the recent election
and to wish you well as you assume your seat in the Tasmanian Parliament.
We would like to alert you to a very important piece of legislation that will
be coming up for debate in the near future, namely the Bill to ban conversion practices.
Liberal, Labor and the Greens will be supporting this bill but it is very
contentious and should not be passed in its current form.
This bill would have the effect of putting in place what is sometimes
called ‘modern conversion therapy.’ This is the process whereby confused children who are suffering from gender dysphoria are affirmed in whatever they say about their gender and led down a path to puberty blockers, hormones and surgery. This is the affirmative model of gender care which has been discredited in many countries including England, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
These countries have banned puberty blockers for minors due to the dire effects of these powerful drugs which include infertility, osteoporosis, loss of sexual function, cognitive impairment and depression. These confused children will, in the majority of cases, grow up to be gay. The ban on conversion therapy for gender confused children is in effect a ban on them receiving the full range of care that psychologists and other health professional could provide to support them through their distress and instead leads them down the pathway to transgender medicalisation.
The guidelines for this care that are used in Australia come from. organisations that have been exposed as unfit to provide such guidelines and yet our organisations in Australia, including Equality Tasmania, are ignoring the developments happening overseas and failing our children.
We would be keen to meet with you to supply you with the information
we have that will help you become fully informed of the ramifications of
the Bill to ban conversion therapy. This bill is not in the best interests of
Tasmanian children and we urge you to give it your immediate attention.
Looking forward to being of assistance to you in this matter.
Kind regards,
Emma Shaw
Women Speak Tasmania