NZ bans ‘conversion practices’

Yesterday evening, the New Zealand Parliament voted to ban “conversion” practices, sometimes called “conversion therapy”, what I have called “torture”. The bill passed 122 to 8.

The eight Members of Parliament were all from the conservative National Party [see below], but it was a small minority of their caucus, and that’s a good thing. MPs from all other parties voted in favour of the bill.

This bill was always a good idea, but for some bizarre reason the ex-Leader of the Opposition ordered the entire Caucus to vote against the first reading back in August, which led me to write, ”Stupid games should fool no one”. I think she just wanted to stick it to the Labour Party, but it alienated many different people in the National Party. Actually, she was really, really good at alienating her own supporters, and nearly everyone else, which is why she was dumped as Party Leader.

I’ve seen several people saying that religion was a motivator for the eight “no” votes, and it certainly played a role in quite a few of those votes—maybe even all of them, for all we know (except, apparently Melissa Lee). However, it’s also probable that other members of the National Caucus are religious, as is the current Leader of the Opposition, Christopher Luxon, who’s regarded as a conservative religionist (he’s fairly non-committal on the subject).

In New Zealand, politicians—Right or Left—seldom try to use their religion as something to be forced onto others. Since the first MMP election in 1996, there’s never been an expressly “Christian” rightwing party elected to Parliament, despite numerous attempts to do so, and there’s never been a left-leaning “Christian” Party at all, as far as I’m aware.

So, the fact that maybe seven of those eight National Party Members of Parliament may have been motivated by their conservative religious views is less interesting than the fact that none of the 112 other MPs were similarly motivated to oppose the bill because of conservative religious views, and some must've had some. In this country, one can assume nothing about the political behaviour of people with religious convictions (or the religious views of someone with a political leaning, too, of course).

The reality is that times have changed. New Zealand’s conservative politicians (whether actually religious or not) cannot try to force their religious beliefs onto others and win elections—and most would never try. That’s both because of political reality (of course), but also because they’re younger than the old politicians, the ones who did so much harm to LGBT+ people (among others). The current National Party Leader, whatever his religious descriptor, wants to win the election next year (duh—he’d be a pretty crap party leader if he didn’t want that), and that won’t happen if National is seen as an American-style rightwing party interested in forcing a “morals” political agenda instead of working for policies that actually help real people. Not that I’ll accept any of that at face value, of course: I have a lifetime of experience that makes me suspicious of religious conservative politicians. Plenty of other New Zealanders would have to be convinced, too.

Because this was a Labour Party measure, I’ll give the final word on this achievement to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern: To anyone who has experienced conversion practices in New Zealand, please know that you are not broken. You do not need to be ‘fixed’. And we will keep doing all we can to make sure you are valued and loved for who you are. And to every member of parliament who helped end conversion practice tonight – thank you.

MPs voting against conversion therapy bill: Simon Bridges, Simeon Brown, Melissa Lee, Todd McClay, Simon O’Connor, Chris Penk, Michael Woodhouse and Shane Reti.

Previously: In 2018, I talked about my opinion on this sick “practice”.]

The NZ Labour Party image above was posted last night, and included with the Prime Minister’s comments on her official Facebook Page