After years of campaigning, research, and working across political parties to build support, the Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill has reached the floor of the Assembly. The First Stage Reading took place on the 30th of June, and the Bill will progress through the next stages of scrutiny over the coming months.
So what’s next for the Bill, and how can you help?
At First Stage, the Bill is presented to the Assembly without a debate. Second Stage is the first opportunity for MLAs to debate a Bill, share their views, and vote on the Bill as it was introduced.
Following this, the Bill goes to Committee Stage for in depth scrutiny, including public consultation and evidence sessions with community organisations.
The Committee may suggest amendments to the Bill, and all MLAs have the opportunity to suggest and vote on amendments to the Bill at the Consideration and Further Consideration Stages. The Bill, including any amendments, gets voted on by the Assembly at Final Stage and, if passed, goes for Royal Assent.
The first major debate, the Second Stage Reading, is taking place in the morning of Tuesday 15th of September. Alongside our colleagues in the Ban Conversion Practices Coalition, organising a gathering at the steps of Stormont.
This is our opportunity to raise our voices in support of the ban and show our MLAs that LGBTQIA+ people want to see meaningful progress to protect our communities – this is one of their key opportunities to do this.
Following this debate, if the Bill gets past Second Stage, we’ll be working with MLAs to amend it and ensure it is as strong as possible, including bringing forward amendments on banning advertisement of conversion practices and strengthening protections for individuals being drawn into these harmful practices.
At every stage in the Bill’s process, we’ll need your support to ensure that our MLAs pass the legislation, that it is fully inclusive, and that it’s as strong as it can be to truly end harmful, abusive conversion practices in Northern Ireland.
Research into these practices, commissioned by LGBTQIA+ sector organisations and carried out by Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University, recommended a ‘comprehensive, inclusive ban‘ on conversion practices in Northern Ireland.
The research, entitled ‘A Study of Conversion Practices in Northern Ireland,’ explores 10 individuals’ experiences of conversion practices within the past 10 years, delving into how these practices were delivered, the contexts within which they were offered and carried out, as well as the impact these practices had on the survivors.
UK-wide and international research has also demonstrated both the scale and the impact of these practices, including in Northern Ireland.
The UK’s National LGBT Survey, conducted in 2018, found that while these practices occur across the UK, they are over twice as prevalent in Northern Ireland, with 12% of individuals being offered or undergoing conversion practices here compared to 5% for the whole of the UK.
The Survey also found that transgender people were significantly more likely to be offered or subjected to conversion practices, while more recent reports have reaffirmed that finding.
If this Bill is passed, MLAs will buck the longstanding trend of Northern Ireland lagging years behind the rest of the UK and Ireland on LGBTQIA+ equality, instead becoming the first jurisdiction on these islands to pass a ban on these harmful, abusive practices.
Northern Ireland’s politicians have seldom passed legislation to meaningfully progress LGBTQIA+ rights. Almost all progress, from decriminalisation right through to same sex marriage, has been delivered by Westminster over the vetoes and inaction of the Assembly.
MLAs have a historic opportunity to send a message that LGBTQIA+ people are not sick, their identities are not wrong, they do not need to be ‘cured’. They must take it, and demonstrate that Northern Ireland is a place where LGBTQIA+ people will be supported to live, to love, and to be their true selves.