Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Senator Higgins.

I thank the Minister of State and Senator Warfield, especially, for putting this important Bill before the House, which I was delighted to cosign. I welcome all the visitors to the Gallery today.

This is a subject on which I feel deeply. It is close to home and close to my heart. When my son wanted to let his aunts and uncles, of whom there are a great many, know that he was gay, I offered him help in spreading the word. When I spoke to my brother, he asked me how my son knew he was gay. In reply, I asked him how he knew he was heterosexual, which he acknowledged was a fair point and we moved on. LGBTI people know, especially when they are ready to share with others. As such, the very concept of conversion therapy is at best ill-conceived and at worst a "a deceptive and harmful act or practice against a person's sexual orientation, gender identity ... or gender expression", in the words of Senator Warfield's Bill. Conversion therapy is insulting to LGBTI people, it is harmful and dangerous. That is why we must support this Bill and ban the practice. Let us remember that so-called “conversion therapy” sometimes known as “reparative therapy” is a range of dangerous and discredited practices that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. Such practices have been rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organisation for decades, but due to continuing discrimination and societal bias against LGBTI people, some practitioners continue to conduct conversion therapy. Minors are especially vulnerable and conversion therapy can lead to depression anxiety, drug use, homelessness and suicide. Conversion therapy - it pains me to use the distortion of the word when I know what real therapy is - has been deemed unethical by the much respected Irish Council for Psychotherapy and others.It is so harmful and really dangerous given the fragility of some LGBTI young people and according to information provided recently by BeLonG To to the Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care, of which I am a member. Included in that committee's interim report, which was published last week and which I commend, is a statement by BeLonG To that the level of self-harm is three times greater among LGBTI young people than among the general population. The rate of attempted suicide is three times greater among them and they are four times more likely to experience severe or extremely severe stress, anxiety and depression. Of LGBTI young people aged between 14 and 18, 56% have self-harmed and 70% have had suicidal thoughts. A strong link was found between a young person having experienced LGBTI-based bullying and serious mental health difficulties. People may need support and therapy. I refer to proper, supportive, non-judgmental, empowering therapy, not the kind that Senator Warfield's Bill rightly seeks to prohibit, which is practised by charlatans with often-questionable religious beliefs that would seek to pathologise LGBTI people because of their sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

I fully support the measures to prohibit this kind of so-called therapy in Ireland, as proposed by the Bill. I also call for the supports that enable LGBTI young people to flourish, live well, and live good and happy lives in Ireland today. I commend the Bill to the Minister and congratulate Senator Warfield.