Ban Conversion Therapy in Ireland
Ban Conversion Therapy in Ireland
The Issue
We're calling on the Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, and the Irish Government to ban conversion therapy in the Republic of Ireland.
Conversion Therapy, otherwise known as reparative therapy, is a dangerous and harmful practice that aims to "curing" LGBT+ people of their identity. This practice has been widely Condemned by Psychologists since the nineties. It has been shown that this practice is both ineffective and harmful,
"Conversion therapists use a variety of shaming, emotionally traumatic or physically painful stimuli to make their victims associate those stimuli with their LGBTQ identities. According to studies by the UCLA Williams Institute, more than 700,000 LGBTQ people have been subjected to the horrors of conversion therapy, and an estimated 80,000 LGBTQ youth will experience this unprofessional conduct in coming years, often at the insistence of well-intentioned but misinformed parents or caretakers." - The Trevor Project speaking on Conversion therapy in the U.S.
In 2018, Fintan Warfield, Introduced a bill to Seanad Éireann to ban Conversion therapy. The proposed bill would have made it illegal to offer or advertise Conversion therapy, and make it illegal for any professional to provide or recommend conversion therapy. It had the support of 20 other senators, but it only based the second of five stages in the Seanad. After the General Election in 2020, the bill has officially lapsed.
I have already contacted my local TD's, and the senators behind the original bill and urged them to take another look at the lapsed bill and try to make it into law. Those who replied to me have expressed their support for a ban of this nature. I'm hoping that if this petition gets more support then we can put more pressure on the government to speed up this process and help protect vulnerable members of the LGBT community. Directly contacting your local TD's about this issue will also bring more attention to it.
The UN had recently urged countries to ban Conversion Therapy, and the Irish Government has already been criticized for not banning it already. LGBT rights are Human Rights and we shouldn't be content with practices that infringe on those rights. If anybody wants to donate to some LGBT charities I left some links below. Also thank you for supporting this petition.
2,143
The Issue
We're calling on the Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, and the Irish Government to ban conversion therapy in the Republic of Ireland.
Conversion Therapy, otherwise known as reparative therapy, is a dangerous and harmful practice that aims to "curing" LGBT+ people of their identity. This practice has been widely Condemned by Psychologists since the nineties. It has been shown that this practice is both ineffective and harmful,
"Conversion therapists use a variety of shaming, emotionally traumatic or physically painful stimuli to make their victims associate those stimuli with their LGBTQ identities. According to studies by the UCLA Williams Institute, more than 700,000 LGBTQ people have been subjected to the horrors of conversion therapy, and an estimated 80,000 LGBTQ youth will experience this unprofessional conduct in coming years, often at the insistence of well-intentioned but misinformed parents or caretakers." - The Trevor Project speaking on Conversion therapy in the U.S.
In 2018, Fintan Warfield, Introduced a bill to Seanad Éireann to ban Conversion therapy. The proposed bill would have made it illegal to offer or advertise Conversion therapy, and make it illegal for any professional to provide or recommend conversion therapy. It had the support of 20 other senators, but it only based the second of five stages in the Seanad. After the General Election in 2020, the bill has officially lapsed.
I have already contacted my local TD's, and the senators behind the original bill and urged them to take another look at the lapsed bill and try to make it into law. Those who replied to me have expressed their support for a ban of this nature. I'm hoping that if this petition gets more support then we can put more pressure on the government to speed up this process and help protect vulnerable members of the LGBT community. Directly contacting your local TD's about this issue will also bring more attention to it.
The UN had recently urged countries to ban Conversion Therapy, and the Irish Government has already been criticized for not banning it already. LGBT rights are Human Rights and we shouldn't be content with practices that infringe on those rights. If anybody wants to donate to some LGBT charities I left some links below. Also thank you for supporting this petition.
2,143
Petition created on 7 August 2020