Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) council has passed a motion mandating the welfare and equality officer and the LGBT rights officer to lobby for the banning of conversion therapy.
The motion also mandates the welfare and equality officer and the LGBT rights officer to co-ordinate with and work with other groups on the island of Ireland working to ban conversion therapy.
Speaking in favour of the motion, TCDSU Chemistry Convenor Thomas O’Neill said: “I currently have just gotten involved in an anti-conversion therapy organisation and I just think it’s a good thing to bring into College to make sure that the SU are still striving towards equality for all its students.”
Also speaking in favour of the motion, the union’s LGBT Rights Officer Brian Hastings said: “The practice of conversion therapy in Ireland is an absolute disgrace. Being a member of the LGBT+ community is not something that can be or should be cured.”
“Conversion therapy is not a therapy. It is a form of abuse, brainwashing and torture.”
By passing the motion, council welcomed “current efforts by public representatives in both Stormont and the Oireachtas to ban conversion therapy as well as the recent renewed public interest”.
Council also noted that “that conversion therapy is currently legal and is practiced in both jurisdictions on this island” and the “immense suffering experienced by, and lives lost within, the LGBT+ community due to this harmful practice”.
In the last few weeks, a coalition of activists from across the island of Ireland have come together to form the Anti-Conversion Therapy Coalition in an effort to see the practice banned in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The Coalition includes members from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Feín, the Green Party, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and Aontú.
A Bill to ban the practice was introduced in the last Oireachtas by Sinn Féin Senator Fintan Warfield and was co-sponsored by senators from multiple parties and independents.
Last month, the issue was brought before the Northern Ireland Assembly, with Alliance Party MLA Paula Bradshaw presenting a petition which amassed over 24,000 signatures.
