“Blasphemy laws are NEVER justifiable” declares Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK. “Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion or belief are the very bedrock upon which our humanist ideals rest”, and in response to the disappointing news that Denmark wants to make it a criminal offence to burn the Koran in public, he adds: “appeasing bullies doesn’t work – it merely emboldens them”. As a member and supporter of Humanists UK I entirely agree.
The very next segment of the Humanists’ newsletter, however, declares: “Humanists protest ongoing delays to conversion therapy ban”. Reports are that the UK government is dropping its committment to such a ban, “with ministers concluding it has proven problematic or ineffective in other countries”. Meanwhile, Humanists UK complain that: “LGBT people continue to be subjected to harmful attempts of so-called ‘conversion therapy’”.
I can’t help thinking that a ban on “conversion therapy” amounts to a blasphemy law, a ban on saying something that offends secular norms. As regards sexuality, pretty much the only form of conversion therapy that exists these days is speech, speech that “can include exorcisms and forced prayer” and that occurs “in closed-off religious communities”.
“Humanists UK is strongly committed to freedom of religion or belief, but that freedom should be limited where it causes harm, and conversion therapy is harmful”.
But I have a hard time accepting that such speech meets a legal definition of “harm” sufficient to justify making it a criminal offence. The whole basis of enlightenment values is that we outlaw physical violence and threats thereof, but accept people speaking freely even if others find it offensive and distressing. If we allow “psychological harm” as a reason to shut down speech, then anyone can censor speech simply by claiming to be upset. And that is exactly what activists do these days, claiming that any opinion they disagree with is “hate” speech that makes them feel “unsafe”.
Yes, it may well be psychologically distressing for a young gay adult to be told by their religious mentor that Jesus wants them to be straight, but I have little doubt that it is psychologically distressing for a devout Muslim to hear of their prophet being denigrated or their holy book being treated with disrespect. If we want to say “tough” to the latter, telling them that in a free society they must accept it, then, as I see it, we must also allow a Christian to proclaim that Jesus deplores homosexuality.
I am puzzled that Humanists UK can adopt a hard-nosed attitude to the “harm” caused to Muslims by Mohammed cartoons or burned Korans, but then go with the nebulous and un-evidenced concept of “harm” to a gay person on being told that Jesus could make them straight. It may be that their postion is a knee-jerk opposition to religion in each case, but humanism should not be anti-religion. If we really think that “Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion or belief are the very bedrock upon which our humanist ideals rest”, then we need to mean it, and reject the idea that such speech causes “harm”. “I support free speech but not where it causes harm …” is how all requests for blasphemy prohibitions start, religious or secular.
As for “forced” prayer and “closed-off religious communities”, any adult can walk away, and if they choose not to then that’s up to them. Humanists UK talk of “harrowing case studies” of “starvation”, though that exposé related only that: “On his first visit to the church, our reporter was invited to take part in a separate three-day residential programme, where those participating would be expected to pray for up to three hours at a time without eating or drinking until the third day”. Unless they were locking the doors, preventing him walking down to the nearest McDonald’s should he choose to (which, of course, would already be illegal), I’m not harrowed. Do we want to outlaw religiously-motivated fasting?
Humanists UK also link to a study of psychiatrists reporting that: “17% [of therapists] reported having assisted at least one client/patient to reduce or change his or her homosexual or lesbian feelings. […] counselling was the commonest treatment offered …” and that some therapists “… considered that a service should be available for people who want to change their sexual orientation”.
If someone goes voluntarily to a therapist and asks for it, I don’t see that it should be a criminal offence for the therapist to offer religious-based counselling, even though that counselling will likely not work. Acupuncture, Reiki and homeopathy also don’t work, but are not illegal.
OK, one might respond, but what about children, what about gay teenagers who may not be able to walk away? And yes, that’s a harder case. In general I want to protect children from religious coercion. But how far would we take it? Should it be illegal for a Catholic parent to teach their child about hell? Should we outlaw cults, outlaw Scientology, indeed outlaw Haredi Judaism or Catholicism or Islam? The teachings of all of these could be fairly regarded as abusive ideas to put in the mind of a child, and yet we tolerate them; indeed we even promote religions by handing over state-funded schools to them and by granting them charitable status.
If we are making it illegal for a religious leader to tell a teenager that gay acts are immoral, should we make it illegal for them to tell that teenager that sex before marriage is immoral, or that they should wear a hijab? I don’t think we should, since if we want freedom from religion and the freedom to blaspheme then we need to accept freedom of religion and their right to broadcast their views, however much we deplore those views.
We already have a problem with British police telling street preachers that they cannot proclaim Christianity. It’s precisely because I want the right to denigrate religion, including being disrespectful to the Prophet Mohammed, that I support their right to broadcast views that might upset others. A better approach is to remove schools from religious institutions, giving kids a right to a secular education, thus ensuring that they can also obtain views and perspective from other than their parents’ religion.
In the current climate, the really contentious issue is not so much sexuality, but “gender identity”. A ban on “conversion therapy” would include a ban on attempts to change a teenager’s “gender identity”. But our understanding of such issues is poor and is evolving rapidly, such that it could be calamitous for the clod-hopping criminal law to step in. We don’t even have an agreed definition of “gender identity”. Heck, we’d have a hard-enough time agreeing a definition of “woman” these days!
Unlike sexuality, “gender identity” seems to be fluid. The evidence is that, of young teenagers who declare a “gender identity” different from their biological sex, many, perhaps most, will desist and come to identify with their sex by early adulthood. Do we want to deny such kids access to professional counselling because the counsellors are worried that, if a teenager does come to desist, then they’ll have committed the criminal offence of “conversion therapy”? Of do we want to ensure that only gung-ho counsellors, who will push an ideological approach whatever, will take on such kids? If you think such a law is a good idea, please could you at least read this account by the parent of a trans-identifying child.
OK, you might reply, we’ll draft the law with an exemption for well-meaning professional counselling. But what about a parent, or an aunt who has doted on the kid since birth and who has their best interests at heart, or a trusted teacher? Are they allowed to talk through the kids’ feelings with them, without risk of being hauled into court? Activists will use accusations to try to silence anyone who disputes their ideology; they already do.
Then there’s the issue that “affirming” a teenager’s self-declared gender identity, that is, going along with a social transition, “is not a neutral act”, in the words of the authoratitive Cass Review, but is instead “an active intervention because it may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning”. Refusing to acquiesce with a social transition might thus be in the child’s best long-term interests (we don’t know, Dr Cass says “better information is needed about outcomes”), while being exactly the sort of thing that activists want to prohibit.
Then there’s the issue that social transition often pushes the child towards medical and surgical transition, which can leave the young person permanently without sexual function and unable to have children, and turns them into a medical patient for life, requiring ongoing maintenance — and yet evidence that this improves their psychological well-being or reduces their suicide rate is simply not there.
Given the uncertainties, this is no place for the criminal law and I’m glad that the UK government is realising the problems with any such law and is shelving the idea. Those advocating such a law must believe that they know what’s best for trans-identifying youths, but the evidence base is meagre. Discouraging open enquiry is the opposite of what we need. Any entry of the criminal law into the contested arena of “gender identity” is likely to do much more harm than good.