“Irrational and illogical” to believe that sexual orientation can never change: Federal judge

Mar 17, 2018 by Andrew Symes

from Law and Religion Australia.

A judge of the Federal Court of Australia, Justice Jagot, handed down a decision recently in which her Honour said that a Tribunal’s reasoning, based on the assumption that a person could never change their sexual orientation, was “affected by illogicality of the kind required to constitute jurisdictional error”- para [15]. The decision, in Abboud v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2018] FCA 185 (2 March 2018), was a sharp reminder that bureaucratic decisions must be based on evidence and not pre-conceived policy stances. The comments may have wider implications for arguments that are often unthinkingly presented about the possibility of someone changing their sexual orientation…

…In repeating its mantra that a person’s sexual orientation is fixed and immutable, the Tribunal was adopting a view that is commonly heard in debates over this area. But her Honour’s decision points out that a general view of this sort must give way to evidence of the lived experience of homosexual (and indeed heterosexual) persons. Observably some change their sexual preferences. Not all those who were once homosexual, and are now not, are the victims of the dreaded “conversion therapy” so regularly invoked in this context. Indeed, it seems not to be beyond the realms of possibility that some people, like Mr Abboud, who are not happy with their current sexual preferences, might willingly and happily seek professional help from those who can assist them in a transition to a different lifestyle.

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But meanwhile in UK: Ministers look at laws to eradicate gay-cure programmes after church calls for ban, by Harry Farley, Christian Today