New Zealand law to ban alternative therapies

New Zealand has announced legislation to ban proselytizing treatments in the country. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Artern on Friday unveiled a plan to prevent attempts to change or suppress sexual orientation and impose up to five years in prison on those responsible.

“Proselytizing practices have no place in modern New Zealand.

There is no place for alternative practices in modern New Zealand.

Chris FafoeNew Zealand Minister of Justice

The draft law to prevent proselytizing before the Border, in which the Ordnance Labor Party has a majority, stipulates that anyone under the age of 18 who uses this type of treatment is liable to imprisonment for up to three years. Unable to make decisions.

At the criminal level, it proposes to open a civil avenue to provide compensation to the injured, regardless of the age of the proselytizing person, and to impose imprisonment of up to five years.

These kinds of treatments – which have caused mental health problems, depression, humiliation and even stigma and even suicidal thoughts to the victims – “have the potential to perpetuate discrimination, discrimination and abuse against members of the aristocracy,” Arden said.

For his part, Trinity, the non-binary person subject to these procedures, told Radio New Zealand that the move would include victims of similar trauma after decades of transplantation.

“You can’t legislate to prevent it from being out of control behind the scenes for years,” said state-funded Trinity, which understands and eliminates “their experiences” of powerlessness and self-loathing. In the context of the church. “

According to a 2018 study by Widago University in New Zealand, one in six non-gender or binary people reported that a psychologist or religious counselor tried to change their sexual identity.

2018 study

In New Zealand, one in six people who are gay or non-binary reported that a psychologist or religious counselor tried to change their sexual identity.

In neighboring Australia, calls for transgender treatment, which the UN considers a torture against the LGTBIQ community, are on the rise – and should be banned nationwide by 2020 after the state of Queensland and the Australian capital territory are outlawed.

Rejection of these practices also occurs in other parts of the world, such as Spain, where the government recently approved a draft of the Trans and LGTBIQ Act, or in Mexico City, where “alternative therapies” were criminalized last year.