AMSTERDAM (LifeSiteNews) — The Dutch Parliament voted to advance a bill criminalizing so-called “conversion therapy.”
Any therapy or practice that is meant to change a person’s “sexual orientation” may become punishable by law in the Netherlands, after a majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, voted in favor of a bill outlawing it last week.
According to the NL Times, conservative parties expressed concern that even “pastoral conversations” with spiritual leaders regarding sexuality or gender confusion could become criminalized. The initiators of the bill said that it would only be a criminal offense if someone tried to change or suppress someone’s sexual inclination in an “intrusive” or “systematic” manner.
It remains to be seen what that means in practice. The law seems to be targeting conservative Christian churches, which recognize homosexuality as a grave moral evil.
People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) member Bente Becker said, “In our country, you should be able to be who you are and love who you want. It is unacceptable for people to try to ‘cure’ you of your sexual orientation through prayer sessions or even abuse. With this bill, we ensure that such ‘conversion practices’ are punishable.”
The only two parties that voted against the bill were the Reformed Political Party (SGP) and the Christian Union.
The Dutch LGBT activist group COC welcomed the decision.
“This is a major victory,” a spokesperson of the COC said. “Gender identity and sexual orientation cannot be changed. Claiming otherwise causes lifelong harm.”
In fact, the vast majority of children who suffer gender confusion grow out of it naturally, and research shows that homosexual inclinations are changeable, contrary to popular opinion.
The COC expressed hope that the ban would cause religious groups “to stop treating homosexuality as a disease.”
“Because doing so destroys people,” it claimed.
However, homosexuality, in addition to contradicting the natural purpose of sexuality – procreation – is linked to a nearly 30-times higher risk of HIV and a 17-times higher rate of anal cancer, as well as elevated risks of other cancers, STDs, and disorders.
“The sexually active homosexual population suffers disproportionally from HIV, anal cancer, chlamydia trachomatis, cryptosporidium, microsporidia, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, hepatitis B and C, genital warts, scabies, HPV, and other conditions,” Catholic pro-family organization Fieles a la Verdad has noted. “As a result, the average life expectancy of sexually active homosexual males is reduced by many years.”
The bill will only become law if it is passed by the Senate, where it is set to be debated in the coming months.
READ: Science agrees with the Catholic Church: Homosexuality is disordered
