‘I feel the lasting impacts of conversion therapy’
Guernsey needs to strengthen discrimination laws before a ban on conversion therapy is introduced, a politician and prominent campaigner has said.
MP Jayne Ozanne has experienced conversion therapy, where processes are used to try to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
He said he would be “happy to see a ban” in Guernsey, but said proper discrimination laws, including against hate speech, needed to be put in place first.
On Thursday, the UK government published the draft legislation, should it become law. It would punish “malicious acts” with an unlimited fine and up to five years in prison.
The BBC approached the Home Affairs Committee for comment.
Ozanne has been campaigning for conversion therapy to be banned in the UK for eight years.
When he was younger, he was subjected to religious conversion therapy, referred to as “pushing out the gays.”
“I traveled the world asking people to pray for me so that I could find a way out of this terrible dilemma of longing to be loved and cherished, longing for a family,” she said.
“But in the world I was in, the evangelical church, love for a woman was a complete and utter no-no, but more importantly, I was taught, it was something God actively disapproved of.
“The stress of praying for 20 years, going through every exorcism, obviously trying to hypnotize everything I could. But every time it failed, the response was: It’s your fault Jayne, you’re not trying hard enough.”
“The weight of it, the self-hatred, the damage and the shame was frankly too much to bear and I found myself in the hospital several times literally fighting for my life… Others sadly don’t even make it.”
‘Devastating effects’
Ozanne said he was “pleased” that the UK government was “very clear” that people could both willingly receive conversion therapy and others “could be forced”.
“I mean people who have been raped, forcibly raped, to try to make amends for them. So this bill will cover both, and that’s incredibly important.”
He believes the bill, if approved by MPs, draws a “clear line” that conversion practices that harm society are “unacceptable”.
“I had no idea what I was opening myself up to and unfortunately the impact of this situation on myself and my life has been quite devastating in many ways, you know I don’t have a family, I don’t have children, I would have loved to have children but at the same time the people who were offering me that help would probably have thought twice.”
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The UK’s proposals will enter a consultation process and will need to be voted on in Parliament before becoming law.
Ellie Jones, chief executive of LGBTQ+ charity Liberate, said she was hopeful the bill would pass.
“I cannot understand how anyone can say that conversion therapy should not be banned.
“This is extremely harmful, it sends the message to people that they are wrong or wrong about who they are, or that something about them is wrong or embarrassing or needs to be changed.
“I think the concerns before were that if people were struggling with their sexuality or gender identity they could be criminalized just for talking to someone and trying to help them.
“I think the sticking point in the consultation would be to ensure that people can still access therapy if they want it, but as long as the aim of that therapy is to help people as they are rather than to change who they are, then that shouldn’t be an issue.”
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