SOCIAL Democrats councillor Shane Hickey-O’Mara called on Minister for Equality Norma Foley for an update on the implementation of proposed legislation on a national ban on conversion therapy.
An ban action that has been called for by the European Commission and the United Nations, conversion therapy is a practice that assumes certain sexual orientations or gender identities are inferior to others and seeks to change or suppress them on that basis.
“Imagine growing up in a society in which your sexuality is reduced to a punchline, in which political parties use your gender identity to sow hate and division for votes, where you’re frightened to be yourself or hold your partner’s hand in public because someone might attack you,” Cllr Hickey-O’Mara told a recent meeting of the local authority.
“This is a reality for many LGBTQIA+ people living in Limerick. They are your family, your friends, your colleagues, the people who voted for you.”
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The City North representative said those who don’t have a supportive community, or access to medical or psychotherapeutic care can be so desperate as to seek out conversion therapy.
“Therapy is still unregulated in this country, literally anyone can put a sign on their door claiming to be a therapist and, in so doing, manipulate, extort, and shame a person into burying part of themselves. These people corrupt my profession, twisting it into the antithesis of what therapy is designed to be: an affirmative and validating process built on trust and care,” he said.