Alliance MLA's 'conversion therapy' ban could see 'parents, preachers and teachers in the dock' - DUP

Gordon Lyons MLA has accused Eoin Tennyson – the man behind the proposed legislation – of writing ideology into law at the expense of the public.

The Alliance deputy leader has brought a private members bill to the Assembly to ban attempts to change someone’s sexual orientation or “gender identity” – a concept that is not yet defined in law.

Mr Lyons said his rivals are in a “rush to be seen as the most progressive party” – and have drafted a Bill “so vague and so sweeping that it puts ordinary family life, religious practice, and honest conversations in the crosshairs of the criminal law”. The DUP MLA said: “Take a mother or father who tells their child, worried about their identity, to slow down and think it through before making life-changing decisions. Under Alliance's proposals, that could be read as an attempt to ‘suppress’ a gender identity - a parent doing their job, facing up to two years in prison for it. Rather than protecting children it is the criminalisation of ordinary parenting.

“Or take a preacher in his own pulpit, teaching what his church has taught for two thousand years about marriage and sexuality. Legal advice has warned this Bill would have a ‘chilling effect’ on the ability of churches simply to preach. A minister should not need to consult a solicitor before delivering a sermon.

“Or take a teacher, asked a straightforward question by a pupil, who answers honestly rather than reciting an approved script. Under a law this loosely drafted, that honest answer becomes a legal risk.

“This isn't a Bill that targets abuse. Abuse is already illegal. This is a Bill that targets belief, conscience, and normal conversation, dressed up as compassion. Legal advice commissioned called it ‘jellyfish legislation’ – impossible to define but guaranteed to frighten people into silence”.

Alliance has said the law will end harmful practices, while protecting freedom of thought and religion.