Northern Irish conversion practices law threatens therapy

On Friday, 25 September 2026, lawyers, therapists and human rights organisations gathered in Belfast for a panel discussion with an uncomfortable title: "Banned in Belfast? Free Speech, Conversion Therapy and the New Northern Ireland". The subject was the Conversion Practices Bill, a proposal that would criminalise certain forms of "conversion therapy" in Northern Ireland. The event, organised by Genspect and the Free Speech Union, brought together speakers who each warned that the bill reaches far beyond the coercive practices it claims to target.

What the Conversion Practices Bill seeks to criminalise

The bill would criminalise attempts to "change or suppress" a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. On paper, it is a response to real and harmful practices such as gay conversion therapy. The problem, several panellists argued, lies in the vagueness of the definitions: according to critics, even a therapist who questions a young person with gender dysphoria extensively before affirming them could fall within such a broad definition. Two separate panels addressed the issue: one on the broader climate surrounding freedom of speech, led by Dr Jan Macvarish of the Free Speech Union, and one focused specifically on the bill's wording, chaired by psychotherapist Dr Stella O'Malley of Genspect.

"A shadow over the kitchen table"

Criminal barrister Dennis Kavanagh, co-director of the Gay Men's Network, called the bill "the shadow of criminal law falling across your kitchen table" — an image of the way it affects ordinary conversations between parents, children and care providers. Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Jaco van Zyl was more direct: "If I don't go along with my client, there is a target on my back." He described the law as a hunt for "a phantom problem": in his view, existing criminal law already covers what can genuinely go wrong with coercive practices, without the need for a new, vaguely defined offence. Lawyer Ruth Paterson of the Women's Rights Network went further, calling the law "a Trojan horse" — intended to combat gay conversion therapy, but, in her view, usable in practice against any doctor or therapist who does not immediately go along with a gender identity expressed by a client.

Why this matters beyond Belfast

The Northern Irish debate does not stand alone. Genderinfo previously reported on the clinical phenomenon researchers call sudden-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), in which careful assessment — asking further questions, delaying decisions and examining what else may be involved — helps protect against hasty medicalisation. A law that treats therapeutic restraint as potentially criminal touches directly on the carefulness required by child-protection considerations in the medicalisation of gender. The Netherlands has its own law against conversion practices; conversiewet.nl provides a more detailed overview of how different countries are seeking to balance protection against coercion with freedom in clinical practice.

Not the first time a debate has stalled in Belfast

This is not the first time a critical conversation about gender in Belfast has run into trouble: earlier this year, as Genderinfo previously described, a women's rights debate in the city was cancelled as soon as gender became part of the discussion. Speakers at the 25 September panel recognised a pattern in this: the problem does not seem to be coercion itself, but the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to discuss it.

Context: a warning from those involved, not yet an established legal fact

Two things must be kept separate. The fact that this panel took place, with these speakers and these statements, is a matter of fact, documented by the organisers themselves. Whether the law actually reaches as far as the speakers fear is a legal assessment that has not yet been tested by a court — the bill still has to pass through the Northern Irish Parliament. Genderinfo therefore does not present this concern as an established fact, but as a warning from people who are professionally involved: as barristers, lawyers or practitioners. That warning deserves attention as long as the definitions in the bill remain insufficiently precise.

Sources

Genspect, "'The Chilling Bill': Belfast panel warns Conversion Practices Bill is 'chasing a phantom problem'", 28 September 2026 — report on the event held in Belfast on 25 September 2026. genspect.org