MP says conversion is 'a core part of Christianity' - and warns over removal of right to jury trial ahead of key Stormont vote today
Plans to remove the right to a jury trial would make it worse for anyone prosecuted under contentious new proposals to ban “conversion practices”, Jim Allister KC has warned.
The TUV leader also says that “conversion is a core part of Christianity” – and says MLAs should not vote through the Alliance Party proposals during a crunch vote on Tuesday.
Eóin Tennyson MLA has declined to explain, when asked by the News Letter, why the law would remove the right to claim a jury trial for anyone prosecuted through a Magistrates Court.
Mr Allister says “deliberately removing” an accused person’s existing rights should concern anyone who “values basic safeguards in the criminal justice system”.
The law seeks to ban attempts to change or suppress an individual’s sexual orientation or “gender identity”. Mr Tennyson says that is defined by the person’s “sense of belonging to a particular gender”.
At the weekend, the News Letter reported that the inclusion of gender identity had lost UUP support for a ban. The party described it as a major expansion into a complex and sensitive area.
All of the unionist parties will oppose the bill at second reading today, but it is likely to proceed with Sinn Fein, Alliance and SDLP backing.
Mr Allister told the News Letter: “The settled legal position is that under Article 29 of The Magistrates Courts (NI) Order 1981 where a sentence of more than 6 months is available, then, the accused has a right to jury trial.
“The Tennyson Bill seeks to upend this be barring jury trial even though a sentence of 12 months might result. The Bill contains a clause expressly headed ‘No right to claim trial by jury’. When legislation proposes criminal offences carrying the possibility of imprisonment while deliberately removing an accused person’s existing right to claim trial by jury that should concern anyone who values basic safeguards in the criminal justice system.
“Mr Tennyson’s proposals have already provoked a strong reaction from churches, which have reasonably pointed out that conversion is a core part of Christianity. The Christian Gospel is inherently a message of repentance, conversion and changed lives.
“Mr Tennyson may point to the provision purporting to protect someone who is ‘only expressing beliefs or opinions’, but that does not answer the fundamental concern. Christianity is not confined to expressing abstract opinions from a pulpit. Ministers counsel people, pray with them, teach them and seek to apply Scripture to their individual circumstances.
“The Bill expressly extends its reach to counselling and instruction. It also provides that consent is not a defence and defines psychological harm sufficiently broadly to include distress. Even parents can be caught by its arbitrary power.
“A law which leaves ministers, churches and individual Christians having to ask whether applying the teaching of Scripture in pastoral circumstances could expose them to criminal investigation is a bad law. Religious liberty cannot mean that Christians are free to state their beliefs in the abstract but risk the criminal law when they seek consensually to put those beliefs into practice.
“This legislation should not pass. But if it were to reach the statute book, it would be even worse if those accused under these contentious and potentially far-reaching provisions were denied the opportunity to claim trial by jury and instead required to stand before a judge who may themselves have been through a Stonewall course. On an issue so deeply contested in society, the right to be judged by one’s peers is a safeguard which should be strengthened, not deliberately removed.”
Mr Tennyson has previously said: “So-called 'conversion' practices are deeply damaging and destructive acts that have no place in our society”.
The Alliance MLA said: “They are based on the false and wholly unscientific premise that LGBTQ+ people are ill and in need of a cure, and that our identities can and should be changed or suppressed.
“The impact can be lifelong. Those with lived experience of conversion practices have reported severe mental health consequences, including anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. No one in our community should face harm because of who they are or who they love.
“Legal loopholes have left LGBTQ+ unprotected and vulnerable to insidious abuse to date. This legislation is essential to end these cruel and archaic practices for good."