^{Photo by Tanushree Rao on Unsplash}

Battlelines are being drawn in Australia between LGBTQ+ rights and religious freedom.

Australian broadcaster SBS recently featured LGBTQ+ advocate Chris Csabs, a “gay Christian” campaigning to end “LGBTQ+ Conversion Therapy”.

The timing could not have been better. It coincided with the release of the government’s draft religious freedom bill. Csabs said that he didn’t need “more religious freedom”; he wants to see LGBTQ+ rights strengthened and religious freedom curbed.

The same week an international research team, some of whom identify as gay, published a study of almost a half million people which found that there is no such thing as a gay gene.

Yes, that gnawing sense deep down within most people – also present in many gays and lesbians, incidentally – that no one is really born gay, is correct. This explains why LGBTQ+ ideologues labour relentlessly to quash every debate where nurture has clashed with nature.

If homosexuality is not innate and immutable, what basis is there for describing the LGBTQ+ community as a protected class deserving of preferential treatment? The simple answer is: none whatsoever.

Although often complex to diagnose, nurture is again proven to be the dominant factor behind erotic attraction to the same-sex. Clinicians are also recognising that environmental factors underlie gender dysphoria.

Csabs cites alarming figures. “A survey by the National LGBTI Health Alliance showed that LGBTI people aged between 16 and 27 are five times as likely to attempt suicide than heterosexuals. Transgender people aged 18 and over are more than ten times as likely.” If correctly researched, these statistics need some careful attention and reflection.

But suicide figures for the LGBTQ+ community have rarely declined in recent years, and have even risen significantly in some places even though Western societies have become ever more accommodating of LGBTQ+ demands.

There are two possible explanations.

The first is that suicides are not decreasing due to society’s homophobia, intolerance, bigotry and contempt towards all things queer. But celebration and kowtowing in countries like New Zealand, the Netherlands and Sweden have failed to shift the sad statistics.

The second is that the factors which lead people to become erotically same-sex attracted are the same as those responsible for suicide, as mentioned in the research results published this past week.

This answer is the more realistic one.

My own therapeutic journey was kickstarted and sustained after a profound spiritual awakening. After stepping aside from my long-term gay partnership and closing the door on LGBTQ+ activism, I came to discover that I had repressed numerous traumatic events. These included childhood sexual abuse enacted over several years by eight different men. Additional to this were three rapes by three different homosexual men during my mid-teens. Then there was bullying and pornography.

Professional therapy and excellent spiritual care led me out of suicidal ideation, reduced my self-harming, broke the power of numerous addictions, and gave me the strength not only to face the trauma of past sexual abuse but also to help convict a paedophile, thereby reducing his ability to destroy other children’s lives.

It also caused my sexual attractions to move from being wholly same-sex focussed to a strong degree of being other-sex focussed, so much so that I married and became a father. The shift significantly changed my mental and spiritual stability.

I have never experienced the coercion, shaming, aversion techniques, or electro-shock treatment which LGBTQ+ lobbyists decry. I just enjoyed good professional therapy and prayerful pastoral care -- which is what Csabs wants banned in Australia.

He has the support of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Earlier this year, Andrews proclaimed that Victoria will “introduce new legislation to ensure so-called ‘conversion therapy’ is against the law – once and for all.” Thanks, but no thanks, Mr Andrews. Do you want to leave others stuck in the aftermath of their childhood sexual trauma? Would you ban all heart surgery because some patients die?

Although tough to take on board, the LGBTQ+ lobbyists – and remember, I’ve been one myself – are responsible for preventing suicide figures from decreasing. In places, they maintain and even raise long-term mental anguish among young people.

The solution is simple.

Allow individuals to access professional therapy and trained pastoral care in order to resolve their same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria. Although deeply challenging, this approach has been proven consistently in clinical results to bring positive outcomes.

Only then will suicide statistics naturally decrease. If you resolve the pain-filled roots of a person’s history, the pain-filled fruits gradually dissipate.

Now that we are reasonably sure that there is no gay gene and that environment shapes same-sex attraction, why are Csabs and Premier Andrews up in arms against “conversion therapy”?

The answer is homophobia. When encountering members of the same sex (homo) who have successfully taken a different pathway, LGBTQ+ lobbyists experience a paralysing fear (phobia). This leaves lobbyists like Csabs feeling threatened. They respond by demanding bans on therapy and prayer. In their eyes, no one must admit to experiencing change, and every story of change must be extinguished.

Csabs speaks of experiencing discrimination based on his sexuality. Well, “je suis Csabs” – but doubly so. The bid to ban people like me and hundreds of other Australians from mentioning same-sex attraction in the therapist’s or pastor’s office is real discrimination. Csabs is promoting discrimination against both our religion and our sexuality.

Intolerance today is shown not so much to people who self-identify as gay or lesbian but to those who, like me, wish to change.

Csabs believes “it is the LGBTIQ+ community that needs protection and support.” In basic areas such as access to healthcare, housing and education, this is true -- as it should be for every citizen.

Yet LGBTQ+ ideologues are telling lies about human sexuality -- in school curricula, children’s literature, psychology, psychotherapy, religious outlook, and sport. Woven together, these lies about something as sensitive and beautiful as human sexuality create a minefield which increases mental anguish for our young. They are offered no protection and therapy bans deny them meaningful support.

Traditional truths about human sexuality backed up by contemporary science need to be promoted more loudly than ever.

We should have concern and compassion for people like Chris Csabs. But it is time to bring an end once and for all to LGBTQ+ bigotry and the senseless push to decide who and what can be raised in therapy and prayer.

If we fail to fight for religious freedom, we fail to promote truth and to boldly love our neighbours as God would have us love them.

James Parker is a former gay activist who supports same-sex attracted people and their loved ones.