In a recent post we looked at media misquotes from Parliament’s Justice Select Committee report into conversion therapy. The mainstream media in typical fashion seems to be stirring the pot and trying to make this an issue to garner support for the change in law. Younger friends have informed me that Instagram was flooded with people posting their support for a law change. Typically our one-sided media does not seem to be giving a fair hearing to all viewpoints and is painting the law change as only positive.
Greens party spokesperson for Rainbow Communities Dr Elizabeth Kerekere is quoted as saying, “There is no place for conversion therapy in Aotearoa,” and “Aotearoa should be a place where no matter who you love or how you identify, you are accepted, and no one should be allowed to force people to change who they are through this harmful and traumatising practice.”
Now whether banning coercive practices is what the law is actually trying to achieve is questionable, and perhaps the subject of another post. But the question we should ask is, “How widespread are these traumatic conversation therapy practices in New Zealand?” Answer: Not very.
Family First made a request under the Official Information Act to find out how many complaints about this practice had been made to the Human Rights Commission in the last 10 years.
The Human Rights Commission in response to an Official Information Act request from Family First NZ has admitted that there were no formal complaints and only one informal one. Hardly a huge problem in New Zealand.
This issue is in fact a Trojan Horse. The media is playing up horrific practices which have been perpetrated by the state in the past to ban Christians and people who disagree with the LGBTQ+ agenda from speaking against it. According to Family First, this ban could lead to people being “prevented from getting help to live the lifestyle they choose – if that lifestyle is heterosexual or based on their biological sex. While gender and sexuality are supposedly ‘fluid’, activists want the law to stipulate that it can only go in the direction they approve.”