VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT TO CRACK DOWN ON GAY CONVERSION THERAPY
By James Branson
The Victorian Government is considering legislation that will crack down on unregistered doctors and dentists, dodgy health service providers and, huh-effing-rah, gay conversion therapists.
Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said that the legislation will make it easier to investigate and prosecute all types of shifty medical practitioners, and singled out groups who offer treatments to “cure” homosexuality.
“We’ve had a number of challenges in terms of the sorts of services people have been provided and no legislative tools to really respond to it,” she said.
“An example of some of the challenges we’ve seen in recent times – we’ve seen gay conversion therapists out there strutting their wares, we’ve seen unethical representations about treatments claimed to cure cancer that we know don’t work.
“We’ve had things like fake gynaecologists and unregistered dentists, but because they were beyond the national laws and the state laws had no power, we’re filling that gap with some pretty tough new powers.”
If you’ve got a spare half hour, check out this excellent Vice doco on Gay Conversion Therapy: