Australian Medical Association Calls For A Ban On Gay Conversion Practices聽
Image: AMA President Omar Khorshid
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has released a statement calling for an end to so called conversion ‘therapy’ 聽as over half of Australian states have not banned the controversial practice.聽
According to the statement, the peak professional body would like to see an end to discrimination against LGBTQI patients and healthcare workers.
鈥淢any people who are LGBTIQA+ in Australia live happy and healthy lives. However, many experience unacceptable health inequities,鈥� AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid said.聽
鈥淐onversion practices are a blatant example of the discrimination faced by LGBTIQA+ people in Australia and have no place in our society.鈥澛�
Khorshid said聽, and the as the only state and territories in Australia to have banned conversion practices.聽
Include LGBTQI Health Knowledge
The AMA further calls on 鈥渢he Australian Medical Council to include LGBTQI health knowledge as a graduate outcome for medical students鈥�.聽
Dr Beng Eu from Prahran Market Clinic who participated in LGBTQI education programs, believes 鈥渋t鈥檚 really important鈥� that doctors are educated about LGBTQI health.聽
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 just as important for example, nurses and other healthcare workers to at least have education in this area,鈥� Dr Eu said.聽
He also said healthcare workers need to be informed about the dangers of conversion practices and to 鈥渄irect [LGBTQI] people to get some [medical] help if they need it.鈥澛�Dr Eu warned that some doctors who are members of the AMA will not be supportive of a ban imposed on gay conversion practice in the states and territories that are yet to ban it.聽
Providing Discrimination- Free Health Services
Thorne Health Harbour CEO Simon Ruth said the right health services need to be offered to LGBTQI people in parts of Australia where they鈥檙e lacking, particularly where they face discrimination.聽
According to Ruth, Thorne Harbour Health 鈥渉as received feedback about the lack of education about [the] communities鈥� health concerns鈥�, with LGBTIQA+ health education for medical students being 鈥渓ong overdue.鈥�
鈥淲e have heard from the LGBTIQA+ communities we serve about an array of bad聽experiences when engaging healthcare services – from services that聽misgender聽trans and gender diverse clients, to聽services that聽deny access to HIV prevention tools like PEP,鈥� Ruth said.
The AMA also referred to intersex rights with the 鈥淵ogyakarta Principle 32 that 鈥榥o-one should be subjected to invasive or irreversible medical procedures that modify sex characteristics without their free, prior and informed consent, unless necessary to avoid serious, urgent and irreparable harm to the concerned person鈥�.鈥�
For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14
For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or .
It is well beyond time that all the States and Territories banned the sadistic, suicide-inducing so-called Gay Conversion Therapy or, as some of the religious fanatics refer to it “Praying away the Gay” these people believe that every word in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are the actual, True and Only Word of God. never mind that every word was written by men for the benefit of men, women are regarded as “Chattels” that is “The Property of Men”. As Children they. like their Mothers are the Property of their Male Parent. When they marry they become the property of their husbands and should he die they are required to marry his brother. Unmarried women become the property of any brother they might have.
To it’s Everlasting Shame the proposal to Ban this GCT cruelty was put to the State Government of South Australia almost 4 years ago. They have done NOTHING other than to claim that “We are in consultation with the stakeholders” – The ONLY stakeholders are Gay people yet none appear to have been consulted by anyone from the Liberal Government of South Australia – probably because it is in thrall the the Religious Right and are scared they might lose votes if they dared to move against these religious parasites and their Sadistic Practices against people they loathe.