Victoria seems to be having its own identity crisis.
The fines and jail terms linked to the state’s proposed Change and Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 are more crippling and severe than anywhere else in the world, and yet the bill is founded on nothing short of deception and deceit.
I came out as gay at 17 and dived headfirst into gay activism. However, the degree of purpose and inner contentment I experienced then is nothing compared to what I experience today as a man who enjoys his heterosexual potential and loves being dad to my own biological offspring. This was only made possible as a result of the same therapy and prayer which Dan Andrews’ government is now callously and disingenuously seeking to outlaw.
I am not referring to the cruel, forced therapies used by the state in the past to attempt to change a person’s sexual attraction or gender identity. There were no electro-shock treatments, ice baths, rapes, bashings or exorcisms. No. I am talking about non-coercive therapies that are accepted and used daily in your own back yard and across the globe. These include counselling, support groups, time away on retreats, and good old peer support.
These support therapies turned my life around and helped me to face the trauma and dysfunction that lived deep within me as a result of being abandoned and adopted as a baby, repeatedly being misgendered, bullied and sexually abused throughout primary school, as well as being pornographied and told at age 14 that I was gay by a helpline worker who knew nothing about me or my history.
These common-or-garden therapies taught me the power of forgiveness and brought resolution to deep issues that had previously fuelled my self-harm, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
Regular therapies worked for me as they work for hundreds of others who reject the LGBTQ+ labels and ideologies. In fact, there is significantly more robust, scientific evidence available that repudiates the gross lies that once gay means always gay, or that a person can somehow be born the wrong sex.
Many great men and women have spoken out in criticism of Daniel Andrews and this bigoted and intolerant bill with its national implications. But who hears the voices of the people this bill will directly affect, the good, upright, conscientious citizens that make Australia the lucky country?
Andrews’ proposed harsh therapy bans are already having profoundly negative effects on many vulnerable lives linked to Victoria. There is:
- The 38-year-old married guy with two children who is undergoing therapy having been raped whilst 15 to 22 by different gay men in Victoria. His PTSD has now risen to the surface and is deeply affecting his understanding of himself as a male and as a heterosexual man. He is now considering ending his pursuit of justice through the police as bolting the door to therapy will prevent him from remaining sufficiently stable up to and throughout any court proceedings.
- The 28-year-old single guy who entered the gay community in Victoria and then had to exit because it triggered all the effects of his own childhood abuse. He merely wants to get well and to have the freedom to make his own life choices.
- The 36-year-old single Aboriginal woman who wants to return to her family home in regional Victoria but will not be able to deal with the childhood sexual abuse issues that affect her lesbian relationships if she now returns to the state.
- The 54-year-old guy who, having questioned having his genitals removed minutes before surgery when in a Melbourne gender clinic, later regretted this, and has met others who equally regret what Melbourne gender clinicians have done by mutilating their healthy bodies.
I have the honour of engaging alongside several others who have been forced into despair as a result of similar bills recently passed in Queensland (QLD) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Here are just a few quotations from people I know personally who are affected by these injurious legislations:
Tim, same-sex attracted single male in his 30s from Brisbane,QLD:
“Talking to victims of supposed ‘conversion therapy’, it’s clear that their experiences were as adults, related to how they positioned themselves within the gay community and linked to the hurt and rejection they felt by the beliefs expressed by that community. This hurt has turned to anger and now they attack MY FREEDOM to practice my faith and even have prayer and conversations about different beliefs. Because they walked into a building and didn’t like what they were told, they say no one should be able to hold these beliefs.
“If this experience is what they claim as ‘conversion therapy’, then what can I do freely as a same-sex attracted Australian? In QLD, with our new legislation, I am scared of what I do or say with my friends, and my options to seek the kind of help and community of fellow believers is crushed. Because some people don’t agree with a belief – that they deliberately pursued as adults – they want to take away everyone’s freedoms. It’s a case of ‘you can’t believe what you want because I gave it a go and didn’t like it’.”
Peter, a same-sex attracted married father with 2 children in his 30s from Canberra, ACT:
“Now that the ACT government has banned so-called ‘conversion therapy’, I have a feeling of dread together with fear and despair. I feel like I have been squashed, or run over by a semi-trailer. I feel abandoned and rejected by government and society who claim to be reducing harm. I feel angrythat my voice in the democratic process was ignored. I feel oppressedby the government and society because apparently I do not exist – men like me who were sexually abused, but have thrived through what would now be called ‘conversion therapy’ have been erased. I did have access to help, but now I am abandoned again. Society has effectively silenced my voice – I am cancelled. I feel abandoned and rejected by the ACT government. My mental health has dramatically improved since I started therapy 23 years ago. Instead, I now have to give in to my desires, which would be re-living the horrific sexual abuse of the pedophile who molested me, aged 7 and 8. I will have to cease therapy and face any traumatic memories of my childhood sexual abuse alone. Even only a few weeks ago, a memory surfaced of something the child abuser did to me, but now I will not be able to seek therapy for that, unless I want to be counselled into following my desires and repeating and reliving the abuse. The ACT government is forcing me into isolation. I feel abandoned and rejected, but I do have hope because the therapy that I have received has been dramatically beneficial. I will have to second guess my therapy and conceal information from my psychologist so I can seek help for some lingering mental health (self-esteem) issues.”
John, a 20-year-old same-sex attracted single malefrom Brisbane, QLD:
“The recovery journey I recently began has decreased my depression, addictions and raging anxiety, and given me hope to reach my full potential. I want more counselling and avenues of access to people who understand the causes of my issues, not total lockdown. Since my government passed this law, I feel completely betrayed and am being plunged into greater depression and increased anxiety. The message they’re sending is that they don’t respect me. They’re forcing me to embrace something I don’t want to embrace. That’s not their decision to make. It’s mine.”
Dennis, a 27-year old ‘out and proud’ gay man from Melbourne, VIC:
“This law is crazy. Everyone should have the freedom to make their own choices in therapy, especially when linked to sexuality or gender. Life is tough enough as it is. It doesn’t help anyone to take choices away from people.”
“Voting in favour of this bill will give further rise to depression, suicidal ideation, and significantly greater self-harm amidst an already vulnerable and misunderstood minority. Contemporary research undertaken by FreeToChange.org which denotes this is being ignored by politicians.
“Nearly a dozen of my peers have committed suicide because they could not access therapies that saved my life and others’ lives. These are the same therapies which Victoria’s Attorney-General has described as “bigoted quackery”.
Victorian MP Andy Meddick has commented on the bill being “accepting and inclusive”. He too needs to remove his rainbow-discoloured spectacles and realise that although he sees his own transkids as “perfect”, there are many other citizens who are knowingly broken, dysfunctional, and seeking healthy treatment that can successfully bring about resolution to their inner trauma. His comment is intolerant, exclusive and hurtful to many already in pain.
Never has there been a state bill in Australia’s history with such wide-reaching national implications which seeks to control counselling by pastors and parents’ discussions with their own children.
It would not be untoward to ask whether this is an independent Labor government at work, or whether there are Communist pressures bound up in these laws. After all, three Communist goals highlighted throughout this bill are:
#26 – Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy”.
#39 – Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
#41 – Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
It seems clear, therefore, that identity crises are not solely woven deeply within vulnerable individuals in Victoria. The greatest identity crisis is most acutely embedded into the psyches of Victoria’s Labor government as it rolls out yet another law that destroys citizens’ lives in the name of granting freedoms.
(The names of individuals above have been changed to protect their identity.)
