Dozens of Australian doctors, lawyers and teachers sign declaration supporting conversion therapy

Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.

Dozens of Australian doctors, lawyers, teachers and other people have signed a declaration that not only supports conversion therapy but claims that this harmful practice is not damaging.

Defined by Amnesty International as “formal therapeutic and informal practices which target LGBTQA+ people of faith with the false ideology that their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender and sexual expression can be changed or suppressed,” conversion therapy practices have faced serious scrutiny in recent years.

Medical organisations and LGBTQ advocates believe these practices are harmful to LGBTQ people and have no grounding in science, with organisations that oppose bans on conversion therapy practices saying such laws restrict pastors biblical prayers, parental rights and clinical conscience.

Organised by the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice (IFTCC), a London-based organisation that says it is a “home for the once-gay”, the declaration contains ten points that signatories are asked to agree with.

Statements which lack scientific evidence, such as “conversion therapy bans are unsafe and infringe human rights”, are included alongside the attempt to reframe conversion therapy as "change-allowing therapies”.

Through our investigation, we've identified 49 Australians who have signed the International Declaration on Therapeutic and Pastoral Choice, including a medical doctor in Sydney, a New South Wales public school teacher, a South Australian Bar Association lawyer and even a suicide prevention advocate.

Back in August 2020, Queensland became the first Australian state to make so-called conversion therapy a criminal offence. Victoria passed a law banning conversion therapy in February 2021, followed soon after by the Australian Capital Territory in March 2021. South Australia banned conversion therapy in September 2024, with a New South Wales ban being effective from April 2025. Conversion therapy practices remain legal in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.