Christian group threatens legal motion against Scottish government over conversion therapy proposals

The Christian Institute has threatened to take legal motion against the Scottish government if proposals to ban conversion therapy trample on religious freedom, parental rights and free speech.

The Scottish government is proposing a ban on “conversion practices” with prison sentences of as much as seven years and the opportunity of an infinite superb for people convicted of breaching it. 

A public consultation on the proposals closed on 2 April. 

The Christian Institute said that the draft laws incorporates only a “handful of vague criteria for what constitutes a conversion practice”.

It fears that Christian pastors who preach traditional views and oldsters who attempt to stop their children from transitioning will fall foul of the ban. 

Joanna Cook, a public affairs officer at The Christian Institute, said that the present draft was “vaguely worded, dangerously broad, and would catch innocent, harmless behaviour”.

She gave the instance of a mother who might attempt to stop her son from going to highschool wearing a dress and make-up. She said that under the terms of the present draft, this might meet the brink of an offence being committed, risking prosecution. 

“There are already strong laws on the statute book to guard gay and trans people. Existing law thankfully tackles verbal and physical abuse in Scotland today,” she said. 

“But those campaigning for a conversion practices law aren’t content with that. They desire a latest speech crime, a thought crime. And, I’m afraid, the Scottish government’s proposals give them that.” 

She said that plans to introduce pre-emptive “conversion practices protection orders”, intended to stop ‘conversion practices’ from occurring in the primary place, were “especially alarming”.

“They would hand the courts very broad powers to limit the free speech of people based purely on activists’ speculation about what they could say to gay or trans people,” she said. 

Legal advice provided to The Christian Institute by human rights lawyer Aidan O’Neill KC warns that the proposed ban risks criminalising the odd work of churches and oldsters who need to protect their children from radical trans ideology. 

Ms Cook added: “Our solicitors wrote to the federal government preparing the bottom for judicial review in February 2022. If Parliament passes a law that tramples on basic freedom of speech and religion, we’re able to challenge it all of the strategy to the Supreme Court if mandatory.”