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

Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on 22 September 2026.

MLA

Mr Brian Kingston

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

22 September 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5741035

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for his intervention. I was just coming on to the points that he has made very well. I am going to take fewer interventions, because time is moving on and I am aware that others wish to speak. Obviously, someone's gender and sexuality are very significant matters in their life. If someone close to you, such as a very close relative or a close friend, says that they are questioning their gender or sexual orientation, that will cause a lot of thought and close conversation and will involve challenging questions. Passing the Bill could mean that those honest conversations are considered criminal if the person then reflects on things and feels that they were being challenged too much, or that their parent did not accept what they said. Equally, they might be grateful that they were challenged because it was a phase, a passing thought or part of ordinary growing-up rebellion. I have pointed out my deep concern about clause 7 and how you would have to affirm what the person says to you about what they think that their gender might be. As I said, that is getting into the realms of thought control, and what it is acceptable to say and think. Let me be clear: no one, including trans people, should be subject, as I have said, to harassment, intimidation, violence or abuse. Many people believe, however, that a person's gender will always be their biological sex at birth. Indeed, that is the long-standing majority view. People should not be criminalised for having a view that is based on biological fact. People are entitled to hold views that they consider to be common sense and mainstream and that do not impact on the rights of others. Many aspects of society are organised around the two genders of the human race: male and female.

No, I will keep going. I have no doubt that a consequence of the Bill — possibly part of its intent — will be to undermine any common-sense division on a male/female basis and potentially to make such division illegal. The Bill would make it an offence to suppress a person's gender identity, as they consider it to be. I again note that the sponsor could not name how many genders he thinks there are. Humans being male and female is not some sort of right-wing conspiracy; it is a fact of nature. I will state the biological reality: as a species, we are designed for sexual reproduction, like all mammals. There are genetic advantages to that. We are born as male and female, as we are intended to be. We have different chromosomes, XX and XY; different genitalia, male and female; and we develop different levels of hormones. However, the Bill is written to introduce diverse gender identity into Northern Ireland law and to promote gender diversity with no definition of what that means — gender confusion and gender fluidity. That is why I call it a Trojan horse. What people do in their private life and what happens between consenting adults is not our concern as legislators, so long as no one is being abused or harmed. However, when their choices or desires will impact on other people's rights or on the provision of public services, it is our concern. In any debate on transgenderism, we in the DUP will stand strongly on the principle that female-only spaces — accommodation, toilets, changing rooms and sports categories — must be exclusively for biological females. The Bill provides the means to undermine that common-sense provision of services in male and female categories in various circumstances such as toilets, changing rooms, hostels, prison accommodation, sports categories, some youth activities, some schools and so on. The Bill could have very serious consequences. The vast majority of so-called conversion therapy is already outlawed, but the Bill aims to make it unacceptable even to express certain views that the sponsor finds to be unacceptable.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 01:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9. This record has been assessed 3 times; the latest assessment is shown.

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