Asexuals say they are being subject to high levels of “corrective” processes and welcome new anti-conversion bill

A new anti-conversion bill in SA which will outlaw conversion practices has been welcomed by Australia’s Asexuals who say they are subjected to brutal coercive practices and discrimination.

Lakeisha Watkins identified as asexual age 14.

Australian asexuals say they are being subjected to high levels of “corrective” processes including brutal coercive practices such as “corrective rape”, forced marriages and exorcisms and welcome South Australia’s move to outlaw conversion practices across the state.

The state’s lower house has unanimously passed a bill that would outlaw the practice and would also allow victims to bring a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commissioner, and receive enforceable remedies. Conversion perpetrators who cause serious harm to their victim can face up to five years in jail.

The bill will primarily target the LGBTIQA community according to Equality Australia, and the A in LGBTIQA stands for asexual

Asexuals are people who do not experience sexual attraction to others and make up around 1% of the community.

Conversion practices aim to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Attorney-General Kyam Maher introduced the proposed laws. Picture: Supplied

Michelle, 35, told The Advertiser she faced discrimination and said she realised in early adulthood that she didn’t experience sexual attraction, despite being “content with that identity”.

However, she said she saw a mental health professional because she was experiencing “depression … that was totally unrelated to my sexuality.”

She also said she found that a counsellor kept on “drawing issues back to the fact that I didn’t have sex”, and tried to link it to trauma she had experienced in life.

The last Ace (another word for asexual) & Aro (Lack of romantic attraction to others) Collective AU Asexual Community Survey of 12,226 asexuals in 2021, found two out of five ace respondents (40.8%) reported attempts or suggestions to “fix” or “cure” their lack of sexual attraction.

Michelle said at one stage the counsellor told her she might want to consider going to the doctor to get physical tests, including hormone levels.

A 2021 Asexual Hate Crime Study by The Ace & Aro Collective AU said along with health, discrimination situations of the 1600 asexuals surveyed reported being subjected to ‘exorcisms, healing, prayers, and forced marriages.’

It also told of their “religious duty to have sex with a spouse, going to hell or endured sexual assaults ‘designed to cure them,” when they disclosed their sexual identity.

Health professionals are not always accepting of someone’s asexual identity, community advocates say.

Lakiesha Watkins, 24, who also supports the new proposed laws says “unfortunately, for some people, they still either refuse to or can’t comprehend what having no sexual attraction is like”.

“I guess for me, the most recent example would be coming out to some friends and they said “it sounds like you’re just insecure”.

Adelaide woman Lakeisha Watkins says that people's asexuality should not be questioned any more than homosexual identities.

Watkins said she realised she was one of the “1% of the population who don’t experience sexual attraction” at age 14 from a social media post.

“You wouldn’t go up to a gay person and say, “you just haven’t experienced a relationship with a woman before,” Ms Watkins said.

“It would be a very harmful thing to say”.