Storbritanniens lagförslag om omvändelseförsök möter motstånd | NTD NYHETER

Religious freedom groups warn that a proposal in the UK limiting LGBT counseling could criminalize faith-based support. Critics warn that legislation is so vague it can be weaponized by whoever is in power to quash opposing viewpoints. NTD's Daniel Monaghan spoke with a pair of organizations that disagree with the bill. The UK's Labour government has unveiled draft legislation that would make it a criminal offense to carry out what it calls abusive acts intended to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill says abusive conduct can include controlling or coercive words or behavior and psychological or emotional pressure. The criteria is just so wide that court orders could be made that do not have any objective accountability to them. The International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice works with groups that support individuals who voluntarily want to move away from unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion. The organization is opposing the proposed legislation, saying it favors only an affirmative viewpoint. And it entirely restricts anybody who has a dissenting view and wants to encourage or allow people who want to move away from these unwanted feelings to have access to professionals who will help them to explore their feelings. Chairman Michael Davidson says that under the bill, those who freely choose a type of relationship that would be in line with their faith, for example, would be considered as being exposed to abuse. There's no availability for persons who want to go in a direction opposite to state ideology. Elizabeth Wanning of the Changed Movement says she overcame her same-sex attraction to find a life that aligned with her Christian faith. We've experienced dramatic life change and many of us are married to our opposite-sex spouses. We have children. We have moved on completely from LGBTQ identities and life experience, me included. She says the message the UK government is sending with the law is that you can only find psychological care if you align with the government's perspective on sexuality. People who have pain about their sexual feelings or their behaviors or can associate them with abuses of the past seek counseling. The majority of people don't seek counseling and so then limiting what kind of access that population can have. The Changed Movement co-founder believes gender distress is often related to trauma and abuse and says the UK proposals seek to put a wedge between people and their faith. I mean laws like this force people to adopt LGBTQ ideology and and restrict people from following a traditional or biblically orthodox sexual ethic you know and what that ends up doing is forcing people to either reconsider or or redefine what sexual ethics are according to scripture and according to their faith or pushes them out of their faith and away from the church or whatever their faith expression is. Wanning says therapy bans hit kids questioning their gender the hardest. They push children to seek kind of psychological relief through medical procedures that don't they don't actually touch on the psychological distress and of course you know children are very vulnerable to suggestion and and so and they're seeking you know puberty in particular is an awkward time and so they're seeking relief from things that are natural. The government says the legislation includes exemptions for what it calls legitimate health care and sets a high legal threshold so only abusive conduct would be criminalized but Wanning and others who oppose it say the vague language means whoever is in power decides what is abusive and what is not. The draft bill will now undergo parliamentary scrutiny before lawmakers decide whether to make it law. Daniel Monaghan, NTD News.