New Zealand introduced legislation on Friday that would ban conversion therapy in most contexts.
The proposed bill aligns with recent steps other countries have taken to ensure safety for LGBTQ+ citizens, and seeks to make good on New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s campaign promise to end the practice.
“Conversion practices have no place in modern New Zealand,” Justice Minister Kris Faafoi said in a statement provided to Reuters. “They are based on the false belief that any person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression is broken and in need of fixing.”
Faafoi added that “health professionals, religious leaders, and human rights advocates,” both in New Zealand and around the world, “have spoken out against these practices as harmful and having the potential to perpetuate prejudice, discrimination and abuse” toward members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The legislation would ban any therapy practices that seek to change the sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression of anyone under 18 or anyone with “impaired decision-making capacity,” as the bill states. Violators of these provisions could face up to three years in prison.
Conversion therapy that is found to cause “serious harm” on anyone, irrespective of age, could lead to prison sentences of up to five years for the practitioner — but some LGBTQ+ advocates are already criticizing that wording as overly narrow.
“[That] implies that it is OK to cause harm, if it not serious harm,” Shaneel Lal, co-founder of the Conversion Therapy Action Group, told The Guardian, adding that the bill nonetheless provides the “potential for real change.”
The move follows similar bans proposed in many other countries, including Canada, Germany, Albania, and the United Kingdom. However, only a smattering of countries — including Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Malta, and Taiwan — have successfully passed sweeping bans on the practice for minors.
The United States doesn’t currently have a federal ban, but 20 states have passed laws fully banning the practice for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, with an additional 8 either partially banning it or restricting it via court ruling.
The practice, which can range from talk therapy to shock therapy, has been deemed “torture” by the United Nations. Conversion therapy has also been linked to increased shame and suicidal ideation among those subjected to it. One 2018 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who had undergone conversation therapy were twice as likely to attempt suicide compared to those who had never been subjected to the practice.
Social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have recently begun banning content that promotes conversion therapy practices or ex-gay rhetoric.
Advocates in New Zealand have been pushing for this change for years — and they’re already gathering momentum to fine-tune the bill.
“Select committee is around the corner so get ready to show up for queer people,” Lal wrote on Twitter. “Get ready to amplify the voices of queer people so the Bill is changed to what we want.”
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.’s weekly newsletter here.
