– Now the bill on a ban on performing and marketing conversion therapy is finally ready to be sent for consultation, says Minister of Culture and Gender Equality Anette Trettebergstuen (Labor) at a press conference on Thursday. – A harmful practice – Someone is exposed to conversion therapy. It is a harmful practice where someone methodically and intentionally tries to change other people because of who they are and who they love. Now it is finally banned, says Trettebergstuen. Last year, the Solberg government came up with a bill to ban conversion therapy, also called homotherapy. This created reactions, because the proposal only applied to children under either 16 or 18 years of age. Trettebergshaugen calls the new bill “a final ban”. The intention with homotherapy is to change a person’s orientation from, for example, homosexual to heterosexual, and is very controversial. The criticism came from, among others, the Labor Party and the Center Party, of which the current government consists. Can be imprisoned In the new bill, one can become a criminal if one performs or markets homotherapy. The law states that “anyone who performs an act that has acted negligently with regard to a person suffering significant psychological damage, is punishable by imprisonment for up to 6 years”. If a marketer converts conversion therapy, one can be punished up to six months. For example, you can not conduct homotherapy in Denmark without being prosecuted in Norway. Crying over the proposal Host Morten Hegseth is one of the profiles that has been visible in the debate about homotherapy. After the bill became known, he cried with happiness. – I was moved because I think about what this bill means. The bill is so damn important, because it says in Norwegian law that it is not allowed to make people sick who are either trans, bisexual, gay, lesbian or non-binary. Then you know that it can have consequences, says Hegseth in the video. Presented during the Pride week It was during the Pride week that the Minister of Culture and Gender Equality invited Anette Trettebergstuen (Labor Party) to talk about a new bill. – This news is extra good to be part of Pride week – where we celebrate freedom and diversity, says Åslaug Sem-Jacobsen, gender equality policy spokesperson for the Center Party to news.
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