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The New South Wales Government is intent on bricking into law conversion therapy by banning conversion therapy. If that sounds incongruent – which it is – then welcome to the modern secular mess we find ourselves in.

The ‘Conversion Practices’ Bill

What’s the ‘conversion practices’ bill all about?

The longer title states that it’s “An Act to ban practices directed to changing or suppressing the sexual orientation or gender identity of individuals, including by creating offences and a civil complaints scheme in relation to the practices…”

A person’s sexual orientation and gender identity (meaning the gender a person ‘identifies’ him/herself to be) is sacrosanct. Any effort to ‘suppress’ these expressions should and will be punishable under the law.

If a boy says he is a girl, that must be affirmed. And if that boy wants puberty blockers and later on, cross-sex hormones and surgery, that wish must not be suppressed.

Bizarrely, the attempt to keep a boy as a boy is a ‘conversion practice’. The process of transitioning that boy to conform more to a girl’s body is not.

To point out the obvious, a synonym for ‘transition’ is ‘conversion’. But the obvious has been lost a while ago.

Lame Attempts at Parental and Christian Rights

The bill makes a poor attempt to not tread on the rights of parents to disagree with this modern secular LGBT+ narrative. It gives the following examples of what does not constitute ‘conversion practices’:

(a) stating what relevant religious teachings are or what a religion says about a specific topic,

(b) general requirements in relation to religious orders or membership or leadership of a religious community,

(c) general rules in educational institutions,

(d) parents discussing matters relating to sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual activity or religion with their children.

A parent can discuss the topic with their child. That is at least something. But at the end of the day, a ban on ‘conversion practices’ is a ban on conversion practices. There are no exceptions. Parents can talk to their children – but there’s little to no room to act. That’s the whole point of the bill.

Labor and Greens Block a Public Inquiry

The ‘Selection of Bills Committee’ looks at bills and decides which ones should be referred for a public inquiry. Yesterday, this committee referred the bill to an inquiry for public consultation.

However, the NSW Upper House (Legislative Council) Labor and Greens members all voted to overturn the decision. As a result, there is no inquiry.

Upper House member John Ruddick tweeted, “Earlier today, that committee voted 7-6 to send the Conversion Practices Ban to an inquiry with submissions and witnesses plus be live-streamed. That was positive.”

A day of infamy in the NSW Legislative Council.

Standard practice is for the ‘Selection of Bills Committee’ to decide which bills be referred to a public inquiry before the chamber votes for or against the bill.

Earlier today that committee voted 7-6 to send the Conversion… https://t.co/VKuxe88J5I

— John Ruddick MLC (@JohnRuddick2) March 19, 2024

“But the government + Greens just won a vote in the chamber to overturn a referral to an inquiry. They won by 21 votes to 20.”

“So now seems highly probable NSW will soon have laws clamping down on the ability of an individual to seek the counselling of their choice. Worst part is, the public barely knows.”

Coalition May Support the Bill

Rachel Wong, CEO of Women’s Forum Australia, tweeted that there are indications the Coalition will support the bill.

She wrote,

“The only thing more disturbing than the Government’s insistence on ramming through a bill that puts at risk vulnerable individuals struggling with gender dysphoria (especially children) and those trying to help them, would be if the Opposition supported them in doing this.”

“It is mind-blowing to me that this is even a possibility given the recent release of the WPATH files showing widespread medical malpractice by clinicians in pursuance of ‘gender affirmation’ practices on minors, as well as the recent decision by the NHS to ban puberty blockers for children in the UK.”

“If doing the right thing isn’t enough – which it should be – the Opposition should vote against the bill for political expediency. So that when the gender medicine scandal blows up even more than it already has, and more and more victims are revealed, they can say to voters that they did what they could to stop there from being any more.”

A Clash of Worldviews

Greens Legislative Council member Amanda Cohn argued and voted against a public inquiry. Before the vote to can the inquiry, she said,

“Conversion practices are founded on the incorrect belief that LGBTQIA+ people are broken—that we are broken, that we are sinners, and that there is something to be fixed. The fundamental position that the Government has taken in bringing forward this bill is that we are not broken.”

On one level, Cohn is being consistent – to a degree – with her secular worldview. If we are mere animals hardwired to our biology and genes, then our behaviour is a consequence of that biology. There’s nothing wrong with us.

But to be consistent with that worldview, we must say that a paedophile’s behaviour is also a consequence of biology. Therefore, it is wrong to attempt to ‘convert’ that person to ‘normal’ adult sexual attraction. After all, the fundamental and non-negotiable position is that “we are not broken”. And that is an absolute statement.

Cohn can howl in protest all she likes that such a comparison is grossly unfair. But she cannot have it both ways (as no doubt, she’d like to do).

And once again, it is glaringly obvious her secular worldview has deep and irreconcilable contradictions. If we are mere animals hardwired to our biology and genes, there is no ‘inner person’ (or soul/spirit) independent from our body. We are genetically hardwired male and female.

Further, it is precisely the ‘gender affirmation model’ of transgender ideology that says that if you are experiencing distress about your biological sex, then there’s something deeply and fundamentally wrong with the body you were born in. And only transgender conversion practices can fix that brokenness.

Only One Worldview is Allowed

The Greens member has helpfully revealed that this is ultimately a clash of worldviews. She has stated bluntly that there is no room for the Christian worldview and its teaching that we are all broken sinners (e.g. Rom 3:23). It is now only a sliver of a step to ban Christianity from the public square – full stop.

Sky News presenter Liz Storer pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of parading tolerance while being intolerant.

“What makes this idea of banning conversion therapy so evil,” she says, “is, notice it’s only one way.”

“They are allowed to convert your kids. When I ‘they’, I mean people in the education system who push this. I’m talking about TikTok videos, all the influences that kids are exposed to these days. All the movies. All the cartoons that they watch.”

“It’s okay to convert your kids into being confused about their gender. It’s okay for your kids to be told, ‘You need to wrestle with this’.”

“But it’s not okay then to try and help a gender-confused kid maybe come back to accepting themselves in the sex they were born with. That’s not okay. You can convert them one way, but God help you if you try to convert them the other way.”

The secular agenda that we are not broken sinners is running rampant throughout our society.

If we continue to build on this foundation, then indeed, “God help us”.

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Photo by Patricia Luquet.