Scott Morrison says gay conversion is ‘not an issue for me’

CHRIS Csabs went through gay conversion therapy when he was a teenager and he says Scott Morrison’s comments today were “not good enough”.

WHEN Chris Csabs was 10 years old and starting to realise he was gay, he was terrified about what it meant.

“From a very young age I grew up in a church that talked about homosexuality as a perversion, that it was an abomination, and that people were demon possessed,” the Sydney resident told news.com.au.

“So I was a 10-year-old who thought I had demons in me.

“It’s frightening for anyone but particularly for a 10-year-old.”

Mr Csabs said he came out to the pastor in his church when he was 16 years old and got Christian counselling until he was 19 years old, when he was introduced to the leader of the Living Waters Australia church, which boasted Australia’s longest-running conversion therapy program.

The church’s leader Ron Brookman, who said he was homosexual for 30 years, declared he had converted people from gay to straight.

While conversion therapies in the past have involved electroshocks or other physical torture, Mr Csabs said the program he went through was structured like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

“We met once a week and went through a manual, that peddled ideologies that lesbian, gay and trans people are broken and need to be fixed or healed,” he said.

It was this underlying message that was so damaging to Mr Csabs and that he is now trying to change through a petition against conversion therapy, which has attracted about 43,000 signatures since it was posted in March.

“The message I got was that there was something wrong with me, that there was a malevolent spirit somewhere inside affecting my sexuality,” he said.

“Even now as a happily gay man who is also a Christian, it still affects me. It was part of my identity and how I saw myself for such a long time.

“Psychologically it’s very deep rooted and it’s really an abuse of the church.”

It’s for this reason that he believes Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s comments about gay conversion therapy were not good enough.

Mr Morrison was asked on Melbourne radio 3AW today for his views about the practice first pushed by fundamentalist Christian churches in the US.

“I respect people of all sexualities, I respect people of all religions, all faiths. I love all Australians,” Mr Morrison said. “People should make their own choices about their lives.

“I’ve never been involved in anything like that, I’ve never supported anything like that, it’s just not an issue for me and I’m not planning to get engaged in the issue.”

Mr Csabs accepted that many Christians don’t support formal conversion therapy and so-called “pray the gay away” camps but this didn’t address the issue.

“It’s very easy to say you don’t support these things but it’s the ideology and messaging that permeates the religion and which is really quite common in society that needs to be challenged,” he said.

“I don’t think a simplistic answer like the one Scott Morrison gave this morning is good enough.”

Mr Csabs believes the government can do more to tackle homophobia within religious organisations.

Chris Csabs was told there was something wrong with him.

“If people want to believe that homosexuality is a sin, that’s their prerogative … but there is a place for intervention through public health campaigns.

“LGBTI people of faith are dying and being harmed by that sort of messaging. It’s not consistent with Australian values and I think the government does have a responsibility there.”

He said his petition was not aimed at cracking down on churches or changing them.

“It’s asking the government to do things like fund LGBTI organisations to work with survivors, for public health campaigns and education in schools and tertiary education.

“We don’t want it to get skewed that all these gay Christians want to punish the church or to get the prime minister to pass legislation against the church.

“The recommendations are all we’re asking for, nothing else.”

A coalition of survivors, churches and community advocates are urging the Morrison government to address the issue ahead of the next election.

The petition sent to Mr Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called for greater powers for health and consumer watchdogs, tougher regulations on counsellors, and a public health and awareness campaign.

Labor has indicated it will crack down on the issue if the party wins government, and the Greens have long argued for reform.

“Conversion therapies and sexual orientation change efforts are harmful and can have fatal consequences. They must be stamped out,” Greens senator Janet Rice said on Monday.

“The basic premise of conversion therapy and sexual orientation change efforts is that LGBTIQ people can and must be changed, rather than being perfect and accepted for who they are.”

RELATED: Could Scott Morrison’s religion be a liability?

Slightly disappointed with @ScottMorrisonMP's response to gay conversion therapy. The medical evidence is clear. It is almost torture.

— Daniel Breban (@DBreban) September 3, 2018

One of the worst things about modern gay conversion therapy is that it's so insidious - framed as counselling or pastoral care or loving prayer. That's why it's so important that politicians publicly take it seriously + tackle head-on. We need to drag it out of the shadows.

— Georgia Kriz 🏳️‍🌈 (@georgiakriz) September 3, 2018

Hey @ScottMorrisonMP you provided inadequate leadership today when asked about gay conversion therapy. It is harmful, not evidence based. Lead for people not fellow christians. #auspol

— Mark Fletcher (@emef) September 3, 2018

But Mr Morrison said he would never become involved in any debate about conversion therapy, which has been discredited by psychiatrists across the world.

Earlier this year, Victorian Liberals president Michael Kroger stepped in to stop a motion on gay “conversion” being debated at the party’s state council.

A branch of the Young Liberals called for the law to be changed to ensure doctors “can offer counselling out of same-sex attraction or gender transitioning”.

It also called on the state government to give parents and minors “full information about the psychological harms of social, medical and surgical gender transitioning”.

The proposal prompted outrage from LGBTI advocates both inside and outside the party.

It was eventually withdrawn after Mr Kroger reportedly contacted the branch and told them it was “inappropriate”.

WHAT IS CONVERSION THERAPY?

Conversion therapy is a controversial practice aimed at changing someone’s sexual orientation to heterosexual. Methods have included injecting chemicals to induce severe nausea when patients were shown photos of men, or the use of electroshocks.

Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the United Nations envoy on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, wants the practice banned.

“Such practices are harmful to patients and may cause severe pain and suffering and lead to depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation,” a report presented to the Human Rights Council in June by Mr Madrigal-Borloz noted.

“Despite being widely repudiated by major mental health organisations, only a few States Members of the United Nations actually ban them.

“They are practised not only by some healthcare professionals but also by clergy members or spiritual advisers in the context of religious practice.

“A recent study revealed the extent of this practice at the global level: in the United States of America alone, some 698,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender nonconforming persons have received “conversion” therapy at some point in their lives, and over half of them reportedly when they were adolescents.”

Mr Madrigal-Borloz said banning the “barbaric” practice to “cure” homosexuality was a key priority.

Conversion therapy is also opposed by organisations including the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of School Social Workers, and the American Counseling Association.

There is no scientific or medical evidence to support the use of conversion therapies, an article in the The Conversation noted but Australia has a long history of intervention in people’s sexual orientations and gender identities.

La Trobe University academic Tim Jones told Fairfax that those in a Protestant church or any other form of conservative religious community, would likely to be referred to someone for conversion therapy.

The practice has driven some to commit suicide and others have been left traumatised.

“We will never be able to count the cost of gay conversion therapy,” former Pentecostal preacher Anthony Venn-Brown told Fairfax. “It has been a silent genocide.”

Mr Morrison, who attends the Pentecostal church Horizon in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire said he had never thought about gay conversion.

“People should abide by the law. If people aren’t breaking the law, that’s a matter for them,” he told 3AW.

PM Scott Morrison says he loves all Australians. Picture: John Grainger

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