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The party announced its Rainbow policies yesterday in downtown Wellington.
As part of the policy package, it also promised more gender-neutral toilets in schools and additional funding for mental health services.
Conversion therapy is described by the American charity The Trevor Project as “dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
A 2018 TVNZ documentary found that conversion therapy is available in New Zealand, and is most frequently practiced in private and religious institutions.
A recent survey, Counting Ourselves, found that more than one in six research participants reported that they had undergone reparative therapy – that is, a professional had tried to avoid being trans or non-binary.
“Conversion therapy is based on the misconception that people are wrong or broken because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Tāmati Coffey, a spokesperson for Labor’s Rainbow. “This is fundamentally wrong.”
Labor joins the Greens as the only parties that have promised to ban conversion therapy.
“Conversion therapy has been linked to serious adverse mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
“That is why it will be banned under a re-elected Labor government.
“It is a practice that causes harm and is out of place in the friendly, inclusive and modern country that we are.”
The harm of conversion therapy
Paul Stevens, who appeared in the TVNZ documentary, shaped labor policy. His church sent him to a counselor as a child.
“He told me he wasn’t gay and he said he could change who he was,” he said.
“He told me he didn’t need to be gay.
“Later I realized how much damage I had done, it really stopped me in terms of my journey because I couldn’t accept myself when someone in a privileged position, someone I respected, told me I didn’t have to be gay.”
Stevens now works as the Labor Party representative for Rainbow and has helped push this policy to the fore.
Two petitions were presented to Parliament in 2018, calling for a ban on the practice. They had accumulated 20,000 signatures between them.
Auckland Pride Director Max Tweedie submitted one of the petitions to Parliament in his previous role as leader of the Young Greens.
“A government ban would send a pretty strong message, not just to those who have these backward beliefs, who practice it.
“But also to the Rainbow community in general, that they have nothing wrong, that they cannot be changed, and that they must be accepted and loved for who they are.”
It is not known how many people undergo conversion therapy. A recent study conducted in New Zealand found that one in six people had a professional attempt to avoid being trans or non-binary.
“It has been shown to be harmful; there have been studies in the United States specifically showing that conversion therapy is extremely harmful to the mental health and well-being of members of the Rainbow community, especially young people.”
Parties that offer mixed responses to plans
In its Rainbow policy package, Labor promises to create better access, support and treatment throughout the health system for the needs of trans, intersex and gender diverse people.
Green Rainbow spokesperson Jan Logie said he supports the proposals but would also like to see an Office for Rainbow Communities established.
“There are offices for basically every major population group, except the LGBTQIA + community.
“The fact that we don’t have one is the result of our history and still entrenched discrimination.”
National declined to comment on whether he supported the ban on conversion therapy.
ACT says that while it does not believe therapy should be practiced, it does not support the ban.
Along with the ban, Labor also promised to invest $ 4 million in Rainbow’s existing youth mental health services and will work with schools to provide gender-neutral restrooms.
The party has promised to create better access, support and treatment through the health system to meet the needs of trans, intersex and gender diverse people.
Labor would also conduct a review of adoption and surrogacy policies to eliminate discriminatory policies.
“I know from my own experience, where my partner and I had to formally adopt our own biological child, that we need to modernize the law,” said Tāmati Coffey.
