I am writing to urge you to reject the Sexuality and Gender Identity Conversion Practices Bill 2020. The government does not have a right to supplant the role of parents regarding their judgment about the best care for a child who expresses gender confusion or a desire to transition from their biological gender. Criminalising the actions of parents who are acting in the best interests of their children will only make such children even more vulnerable.

This bill potentially criminalises the actions of a parent who seeks to take a ‘watchful waiting’ approach to a child expressing gender confusion or a desire to transition from their biological gender. The bill makes clear that the only option available for parents and counsellors in such circumstances is to affirm such a desire or else risk falling foul of the law. This is an extreme law that removes parent’s rights in such a fundamental area and must be rejected by the Legislative Assembly.

I would like to express my extreme disappointment that the government has rushed through the “conversion therapy” bill in the ACT without adequate consultation with those who will be most affected by it. A matter such as this requires thorough and transparent consultation with the electorate. I urge you to vote against it.

I am writing to urge you to vote against the Sexuality and Gender Identity Conversion Practices Bill 2020. Under the guise of banning harmful and coercive conversion therapy practices, the terms of the legislation directly expose parents and counsellors to criminal charges if they don’t agree with the ideology that states that gender-confused children must be put on a pathway towards hormonal and surgical transition. These are matters for parents, not the state, to decide, in the best interests of their own children.

I am writing to you in relation to the conversion therapy bill that will be debated in the Legislative Assembly this week. The effect of the bill is to prioritise radical ideology over and above professional therapeutic care for gender confused children. Threatening counsellors with criminal prosecution for not automatically ‘affirming’ a child’s desire to transition from their biological gender will only lead to diminished outcomes for the health and wellbeing of children in the ACT. We must do better.