Damaging effects of conversion therapy discussed at campaign event

LGBT Ireland leads Ban Conversion Therapy Campaign event in Dublin City Centre 

Community . Written by Saoirse Schad .

Speakers and attendees at LGBT Ireland's Ban Conversion Therapy Campaign event
Image: LGBT Ireland via Twitter

In an event spearheaded by LGBT Ireland, a Ban Conversion Therapy Campaign seminar was held today, May 17, at the Museum of Literature Ireland, to discuss the damaging effect of the harmful practice.

According to LGBT Ireland, the lead organisation in the Ban Conversion Therapy Campaign, the Government needs to ban LGBT conversion practices and ensure any ban is inclusive of trans people, applies to all age groups, and covers both religious and clinical conversion practices.

“We are calling on the Government to deliver upon the commitment laid out in its Programme for Government and ban conversation practices,” said Alan Edge, Campaign Officer of Ban Conversion Therapy at LGBT Ireland. “While we are pleased the Government is committed to outlawing these horrendous practices, urgent action must be taken. While we wait, people’s lives are being torn apart because they are being forcibly subjected to bogus therapies and spiritual interventions. The psychological consequences of such practices are grave and long-lasting.”

Edge continued, “While we are pleased the Government is committed to outlawing these horrendous practices, urgent action must be taken.

“While we wait, people’s lives are being torn apart because they are being forcibly subjected to bogus therapies and spiritual interventions. The psychological consequences of such practices are grave and long-lasting.”

The seminar featured speakers such as Roderic O’Gorman TD, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Jayne Ozanne, Director of the Ozanne Foundation; and Aisling Twomey, Policy and Advocacy Manager of The Rainbow Project in Northern Ireland.

Major Irish LGBTQ+ organisations were all in attendance to show solidarity with the cause, including Dublin Pride, BeLonG To youth services, the NXF, and TENI, as well as Spirasi, a rehabilitation centre for victims of torture.

LGBT Ireland Tweeted that Roderic O’Gorman spoke: “about the impact of conversion practices and the trend of homophobic and transphobic aggression and violence across our community” while noting the progress that has been made to advance the rights of the LGBTQ+ community over the years.

“At [LGBT Ireland’s] event on #IDAHOBIT2022, I announced that we have begun research into the cruel practice of so-called conversion therapy, which will pave the way for legislation,” O’Gorman Tweeted. “A ban on conversion practices will happen, and it will leave no one behind.”

Jayne Ozanne, the event’s keynote speaker, not only gave a research-backed talk on the harmfulness of conversion therapies on LGBTQ+ people but also shared their experiences with the practice.

“So-called ‘conversion therapy’ is one the most hidden and dangerous evils in our society today, putting thousands of LGBT+ lives – particularly young LGBT+ lives – at risk,” they said. “That is why we need governments to ban these abhorrent practices in all their forms, and to offer support to victims whose lives have been traumatized by what they have experienced. I am therefore very honoured to be part of this important event which will help ensure that Irish LGBT people have the protections they need.”

The event coincided with #IDAHOBIT, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, the date for which was “chosen to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder”.

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