“Conversion practices are harmful to individuals subjected to them,” the consultation paper states. “They are promoted within an ideology that views LGBTQI+ identities as wrong and believes that they can be changed. Their existence contributes to this way of thinking even further.”
The directorate claimed these “conversion practices” range from “controlling” someone’s appearance to “restricting where a person goes and who they see.” Prescribing sexual suppressants intended to suppress a person’s sexuality or “gender identity” would also fall under this category, the document said.
Conversion practices also included “therapy or counseling that requires a person not to act on their same-sex attraction, including through celibacy.”
The Christian Institute, a nondenominational charity that advocates the upholding of biblical truths, said this week that it “remains ready” to take the Scottish government to court over the potential law.
“The courts could impose draconian limits on the free speech of individuals based purely on activists’ speculation about what they might say to gay or trans people,” said Simon Calvert, the institute’s deputy director for public affairs.
The Scottish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, meanwhile, expressed concern last year that a “conversion therapy” ban would restrict mainstream religious pastoral care, parental guidance, and other relevant professional intervention “unless it was approved by the state as acceptable.”
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