Prime minister Scott Morrison has neglected to condemn the practice of gay conversion therapy, claiming “it is not an issue” for him and that he has no intention of addressing it.
Morrison, a devout Evangelical Christian and member of the “Christ centred… Spirit led” Horizon Church, in Sydney’s south, was questioned over his stance on the issue during an interview with Melbourne radio 3AW on Monday. When presenter Neil Mitchell asked “Do you have a view on gay conversion?”, the newly-elected Liberal Party leader replied “I think people should make their own choices”.
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“I’ve never been involved in anything like that, I’ve never supported anything like that, it’s just not an issue for me and I’m not planning to get engaged in the issue,” Morrison said. “If people aren’t breaking the law, that’s a matter for them… It’s not an issue I’m focused on at all.”
Gay conversion therapy—where a homosexual or bisexual individual is subjected to a spiritual intervention in an attempt to convert them to heterosexuality—is fast becoming a hot button topic in Australian politics. Calls for a national inquiry into the issue have received support from a number of health experts and churches, and a survivor-led petition with some 43,000 signatures was sent to Morrison and opposition leader Bill Shorten over the weekend.
The prime minister’s rather flippant attitude stoked immediate backlash among those pushing for federal reform, with many social media users deriding Morrison for refusing to take a stand on the issue. In response to his comments, LGBTIQ activist Sally Rugg tweeted: “The issue with conversion therapy is that it’s not just harmless quackery that people can choose to waste their money on, it’s incredibly damaging to people who access it. Direct correlation to greater mental illness.
“The UN describes it as ‘torture’.”
A national survey found that banning gay conversion therapy was the number one priority for the LGBTI community in the lead-up to the federal election, Fairfax reported. The Labor party has indicated that they will take action on the issue, should they be elected, while the Greens have been barracking for reform for some time.
