Parents, Priests Face Prison Under LGBT Law
by Jules Gomes, Church Militant:
Australian bishops silent on ‘world’s most extreme gay therapy bill’.
Australia’s bishops are silent in the face of new legislation that will criminalize parents, priests and teachers who affirm Catholic teaching in helping people deal with same-sex attraction or confusion about their gender identity.
If passed, the Sexual and Gender Identity Conversion Practices Bill 2020 “will be amongst the most extreme laws banning conversion therapy in the world,” the Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA) is warning.
The bill, published on the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government’s website Aug. 13, stipulates 12 months’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $24,000 on persons who make any effort to “change” a “person’s sexuality or gender identity.”
No form or “combination” of sexuality or gender identity “constitutes a disorder, disease, illness, deficiency, disability or shortcoming,” states the Canberra legislative assembly’s bill.
“It is clear that this Conversion Bill targets orthodox teachings of many religions,” HRLA notes, since “the Conversion Bill will not permit ‘the manifestation or demonstration of religious belief, or the expression of information or ideas, that seek to change a person’s sexuality or gender identity.'”
In comments to Church Militant, HRLA principal lawyer John Steenhof said he regarded the bill as “fundamentally flawed” and its drafting as “imprecise and ambiguous.”
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