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MLA Culture Wars

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107,470 records match, page 281 of 4299.

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

    I am always interested in what the Member says. I will try to go through his points as best I can. On teacher workload, I agree — I think that everyone agrees — that teachers do an amazing job and have a very considerable workload. As far as I am aware, teachers are not mentioned in the Bill — I wait to be corrected…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I thank the Member for giving way. To go back to his earlier point, does he agree that teachers are already under a lot of pressure, given their huge workload, which is growing by the day? Does he also agree that teachers, although great educators, are not best placed to give advice or guidance on gender or sexuality…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I agree completely with my colleague. It is that chilling effect about which I am worried. When children in particular present with some level of gender questioning or gender dysphoria, they need talking therapies. That is exactly what they need. The last thing that they need is puberty blockers and life-changing…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I thank the Member for giving way. He touches on the important point — one on which Miss McAllister made an intervention earlier — about children and young people seeking advice outside the home. He says that we are talking not just about criminalising parents and placing them in court but about criminalising teachers…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    Clause 7 gets more concerning, because it specifies not just what the victim may consider their gender to be but what they consider it "is, or may be". The person does not even need to be certain, yet affirmation is expressly identified in the legislation. The sponsor's EFM describes it as somebody's: "simply…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    That is an excellent point from the Member for North Antrim. I assure Members that I am not trying to push all the way through to 10.00 pm, but I will make a little progress. I want to move on to definitions and thresholds and to focus on young people and the education sector, which is probably the most crucial piece…

    Not flagged Decided on a second assessment.

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    • Mr Paul Frew DUP
    • Private Members' Business

    The Member has provoked an important intervention. Is the proposer of the Bill saying that a medical practitioner or someone else who gives a child puberty blockers is contravening this new law and committing the new offences? That should work both ways, even if the victim consented to the therapy. Is the proposer of…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    "Transgender" does not appear in the Bill. The thoughts that I have just read out speak for themselves. I am glad to get those voices into the Chamber, because we will not hear them from the other side of the House, and those people exist. I will give way to the Member.

    Not flagged Decided on a second assessment.

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I thank the Member for giving way. He has hit, perhaps not intentionally, on an important point, which is that the definitions and wording that we have employed in the legislation are deliberately universal in nature. So, just as someone would be criminalised if they were engaging in a course of conversion therapy…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    Can the Member familiarise the House again with the work of CARE? It is my understanding that it helped to draft and pass landmark legislation in the House that focused on tackling human trafficking here in Northern Ireland. Any attempt to slur that organisation bears no resemblance to fact or reality.

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I think that the Member has answered her own question. What the Equality Commission has said is very interesting, especially in the context of what we are discussing. The timing is indeed very interesting. I want to stay on the supporting evidence for the Member's Bill for a moment, and I promise that I will then get…

    Flagged Decided on a second assessment. Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues Criteria met: Dog-whistle messaging.

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I appreciate the Member's giving way in what is a really important debate. I do not know whether the Member is aware, but a statement has come from the Equality Commission during the debate. It is clear that the Bill needs scrutiny and that it must comply with human rights law. The Equality Commission says in its…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I agree with the Minister, and as I said, I will come on to those aspects later. There are some very specific points that I will deal with this evening, but it is the general overreach that I think is very concerning, as are some specific elements of it.

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    • Mr Gordon Lyons DUP
    • Private Members' Business
    • As a minister

    I am grateful to the Member for giving way. The point that the Member for North Antrim just made shows the merry-go-round that we are on today. The 10 people about whom we are talking do not represent the area of concern for us in how the legislation does what it should not intend to do. We want to make sure that, if…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I appreciate the Member's giving way. It is disappointing that that response was given to you, because it has been made abundantly clear, from these Benches, where the concerns come from. It is because, for the first time in the history of a Western democracy, we have an attempt to create primary legislation that…

    Not flagged Decided on a second assessment.

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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

    I hear your point about the size of the dataset and the fact that it is such a small pool. Given that it is such a small pool, however, surely the Bill will not have as big an impact as the Member and his colleagues are saying it will. If the pool that might be impacted on is so small, how will the Bill have the…

    Not flagged

    Assessment details Official Assembly record

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