The office of the Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner will conduct an inquiry into therapeutic treatments that are antagonistic towards queer sexualities and transgender and gender-questioning individuals.
The investigation hopes shine a light on the continuance of Gay Conversion Therapy practices, which while widely discredited by medical establishments are still offered by unlicensed counsellors and by licensed practitioners under a number of euphemisms, most commonly as “spiritual guidance” by religious operators.
This inquiry is the latest development in an ongoing debate over the rights of individuals sceptical of diverse sexualities and gender expressions under law: in April, socially conservative factions within the Victorian opposition attempted to table a policy at the Victorian Liberal’s state conference that would allows doctors to “offer counselling out of same sex attraction or gender transitioning” and a number of other motions that critics within and outside the party argue are discriminatory towards LGBTI individuals.