Conversion therapy banned YAY but a ‘shopping list’ of changes still to be made

In 1993, it became illegal to discriminate against someone's sexual orientation. In 2005, same-sex couples could formalise their relationship. In 2013, same-sex marriage was legalised. This month, conversion therapy was banned.  

Notice how it took over or close to a decade for another change to be made.  

After almost four years since the original petition to ban conversion therapy, the bill has been passed. But the Green Party isn’t done yet. It has called to create a Ministry for Rainbow Communities which some hope will make change move faster.  

The party says a Ministry for Rainbow Communities will give LGBTQIA+ people a voice in government. 

Sunday Star Times News Director Craig Hoyle was excommunicated from the Exclusive Brethren after coming out as gay when he was a teenager. 

Brethren leaders attempted to change his sexuality and gave him hormonal suppressants. After telling the Exclusive Brethren he wanted to live as an openly gay man, he was excommunicated and thrown out of home in 2009. 

Hoyle said, “My first awareness of the gay community was when the civil union was passed in 2005.” 

From his own experience, Hoyle could see how the Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill could bring awareness to people in religions that don’t educate them about the queer community. 

“You just have no idea who might see this legislation and or who might read the news and it might give them the strength they need to stand up for themselves.” 

To create a more supportive Aotearoa for the queer community, Hoyle said there needs to be more education and support around LGBTQIA+. 

“We already have a ministry for pacific people and for ethnic affairs and now for disabled people, and to me having a minister of rainbow communities would be a logical step.” 

While he said legislations regarding the queer community create awareness, Hoyle said the new law would not likely have protected him as a teenager. 

“Would it have protected me? Probably not because in my experience the Brethren did plenty of other things that weren’t okay.” 

“I very much doubt it that the Exclusive Brethren would agree that they used conversion therapy when it came to my case … they believe their acting out of love.” 

“I have no doubt that conversion therapy will continue in New Zealand.” 

However, Hoyle said this bill sets the societal standard that conversion therapy isn’t okay.  

“This sends a really strong message that it's not okay. People will say that this will just drive the practice underground, but that’s still better than having it out in the open and pretending that it's okay when it's not.” 

“It's not about the people who have a voice, a legislation like this is really important for the people who don’t have voice,” said Hoyle. 

Auckland Pride Executive Director Max Tweedie was the co-convenor for the Young Greens in 2018. He presented the original petition to ban conversion therapy to the MPs on Parliament steps almost four years ago. 

Tweedie said, “It's not often that we get a huge win in Parliament.” 

“Before that it was 2013, before that it was 2005, before that it was 1993 … I’ve got a shopping list of things that I’d love to see changed.” 

While he no longer works for the Green Party, Tweedie is a huge advocate for a Ministry for Rainbow Communities, “There's no central coordinator within government that kind of keeps track of these issues.” 

“I think the best way to supercharge that work is to establish a ministry and have that advocate in government.” 

Finding out that the bill was finally passed was “true euphoria”, Tweedie said. 

However, he said the journey wasn’t easy, “There were quite a few hurdles at the start.” 

The Young Green’s petition and community petition, with a combined signature count of 20,000, went to the Justice Committee who didn’t recommend a ban in 2019. 

“I remember sitting in front of the MPs … we debated this for 30 minutes with the Select Committee members and ultimately they didn’t recommend a ban.” 

“It was a little bit back to square one once that didn’t come back, and we were promised work internally within the Ministry of Justice that we don’t think happened before the 2020 election.” 

When given the opportunity to reply, Kathy Brightwell, Ministry of Justice General Manager believed the Covid-19 response was a higher priority for the previous minister.   

“The previous Minister of Justice agreed in March 2020 to further work to develop options to end the use of conversion practices on children and young people in New Zealand.”  

“This work was not able to be progressed before the 2020 election due to the need to prioritise the government response to Covid-19.” 

Tweedie said there wasn’t much headway until Labour put it in their policy manifesto. 

While this is a huge win, “We're under no illusion that this will stop every single conversion practice from ever happening ever again, and there's obviously more work to do”.