The law also protects the right to express opinion, religious belief or principle which is not intended to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation.
New Zealand’s Parliament has near-unanimously passed a legislation that bans practices intended to forcibly change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, known as conversion therapy.
Aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, conversion therapy can include talk therapy, hypnosis, electric shocks and fasting. In extreme cases globally, exorcism and “corrective rape” for lesbians, have been documented. The government said it had received nearly 107,000 public submissions on the bill, the highest number of public submissions ever received on any legislation.Under the legislation, it will be an offence to perform conversion practices on a child or young person aged under 18, or on someone with impaired decision-making capacity. Such offences would be subject to up to three years’ imprisonment.
The United States like Australia does not have a federal ban on conversion therapy, but several US states, including California, Colorado, New York, Washington and Utah, and Australian jurisdictions Queensland and the ACT prohibit it to some degree. Victoria banned the practices last year.Ending conversion therapy was one Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s campaign promises when she was elected for a second term last year.
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