This week online journal MercatorNet published an article by HRLA Principal Lawyer John Steenhof that raises the alarm on so-called conversion therapy prohibition legislation. This legislation now poses a significant challenge to religious freedom in Australia.

Rather than aiming to protect Australians from pointless and damaging clinical interventions like castration and aversive electric shocks, the proponents of conversion therapy legislation now seek to eliminate “the promotion of any practical sexual moral code, particularly Christianity”.

John exposes the serious human rights implications of these troubling laws by posing the simple question: is it a legitimate and responsible use of power to pass legislation that is motivated to attack a particular “ideology” shared by millions of Australians?

John argues that conversion therapy prohibition legislation combines “misplaced reliance on research, vague definitions, contested queer theory ideology and a clear targeting of Christianity and has produced objectively terrible laws”.

Read John’s analysis here.