Debate contribution: Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mrs Sinéad Ennis on 15 September 2026.

MLA: Mrs Sinéad Ennis
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 15 September 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5706511

Text

Thank you, Mr Burrows. You said that you did line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill. Why do you keep conflating — deliberately, in my opinion — normal parenting practices with an attempt to change the child's sexuality? You keep bringing up normal, everyday situations that a parent will be in as part of their parenting and conflating them with an attempt to change their child's sexuality. When you are disciplining a child for spending too much time on their iPad, the intent is not to change their sexuality. Other Members are slightly aghast at that, coming from somebody who claims to have done so much line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill.

109 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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