Malta: "Former gay man" may be imprisoned

[Estro Felino]

I found an article in Italian but none in English. Malta, “ex gay” si racconta in un’intervista. Ora rischia la galera


Fortunately this video talks about it:

What do you guys think? Malta is a former British colony. They have a very Mediterranean, Catholic culture though. They banned abortion (very Catholic-like, but Maltese women go to Italy to have an abortion). But they have this policy on conversion therapies. Which they find wrong (I agree).

 

[Estro Felino]

As a premise: I think that conversion therapies are really unmentionable.
People's sexual orientation is something innate.

Being gay is something perfectly okay, so I don't think that one should change.

Nevertheless I have always been 100% heterosexual, I have always been into men. So I am not able to understand people who are torn between two sexual orientations.
Because I think bisexuality is something accepted as well. They should accept it. Period. They should accept themselves.

 

[vulcanlogician]

This is a complicated issue with a lot of moving parts. Here are three of those moving parts:

1. The free speech policies of Malta.
2. Whether this person will actually be found guilty in the eyes of Malta jurors. (It could be that he is found innocent.)
3. Practices which are endorsed to be practiced under the auspices of a LICENCED THERAPIST in the US, according to laws and regulations.

What doctors and therapists are allowed to do under the auspices of licensure is regulated by the state. Nobody is saying that you can't be a "spiritual counselor" and use conversion therapy on somebody in the US.

The video's author seems to get these things mixed up.

 

[Estro Felino]

This is a complicated issue with a lot of moving parts. Here are three of those moving parts:

1. The free speech policies of Malta.
2. Whether this person will actually be found guilty in the eyes of Malta jurors. (It could be that he is found innocent.)
3. Practices which are endorsed to be practiced under the auspices of a LICENCED THERAPIST in the US, according to laws and regulations.

What doctors and therapists are allowed to do under the auspices of licensure is regulated by the state. Nobody is saying that you can't be a "spiritual counselor" and use conversion therapy on somebody in the US.

The video's author seems to get these things mixed up.

In Malta there is not the Common Law system, btw.
There may be a problem of freedom of speech, here. He is entitled of speaking of his own personal experience.

 

[pearl]

Matthew Grech, 33, recounts in an interview his conversion to Christ and the abandonment of the homosexual lifestyle. He is now accused of advertising reparative therapies, a practice banned in Malta. On trial on February 3, he faces up to 5 months in prison. A case that confirms the tyranny of the "new rights".
n Malta, a reinterpretation of the myth of the cave is being staged, mixed with the fantasies of the writers of contemporary dystopian novels. Only here the protagonists are in flesh and blood. There is a former "prisoner", named Matthew Grech, who has discovered the Light (of the one with a capital L, which Plato himself did not yet know) and wants to witness it to the former companions of "prison" and, one can say, to the whole world, since all - Christians and non-Christians - need every day to convert to the saving will of Our Lord. And there is a system, based on an ideology that has penetrated the major centers of political-media-judicial power, which threatens to send our Matthew to a new prison - this time with material bars.
Malta, "ex-gay" tells himself in an interview. Now he risks jail - The New Daily Compass (lanuovabq.it)

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Conversion therapy has been consistently found to be ineffective at best, destructive at worst. It's creating a problem that doesn't exist so it can sell a snake oil as the cure.
Such things are rightly criminalized.

 

[Estro Felino]

Conversion therapy has been consistently found to be ineffective at best, destructive at worst. It's creating a problem that doesn't exist so it can sell a snake oil as the cure.
Such things are rightly criminalized.

Yes. I don't understand why the patient should be criminalized, though.

 

[Subduction Zone]

This article may be a bit better. It clearly does not have the FOX bias:

Matthew Grech’s ‘orientation’ – Ranier Fsadni

 

[Sand Dancer]

We'll find him in a bathroom with a guy with his pants down in 3...2...1...

 

[vulcanlogician]

This article may be a bit better. It clearly does not have the FOX bias:

Matthew Grech’s ‘orientation’ – Ranier Fsadni

Yes. Much better. It really gets to the heart of the issue. For all its well-intendedness, the Malta law makes sweeping assumptions about human nature that it ought not make.

I think the better solution, rather than criminalizing "endorsements" and "practices" is to prohibit professional therapies. Problematic endorsements can be countered with education initiatives and outreach programs. The law would most certainly be declared unconstitutional by an American Supreme Court. (Even one that consisted entirely of liberal justices.)

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

We'll find him in a bathroom with a guy with his pants down in 3...2...1...

One really hates to say it, but this has too often turned out to be exactly the case.

I wonder how many heterosexual people would acknowledge that, if they had a sufficiently good reason for it, they could have their orientation reversed and become homosexual by any sort of therapy. I'm betting the vast majority would say, "not a chance!"