The Christian Institute: Stormont conversion practices law is a “complete non-starter”

BELFAST – Eóin Tennyson MLA is expected to introduce a Member’s Bill on ‘conversion practices’ to the NI Assembly today (30 June 2026). The Christian Institute is warning that the proposal appears to be targeted at Christian prayer, pastoral care, and gender-critical expression.

The Institute points out that Tennyson’s Bill is based on long-abandoned proposals from the Scottish Government, which were shelved after the Minister responsible cited concerns regarding their legal viability.¹

The Christian Institute’s NI Policy Officer James Kennedy said:

“This proposal is a complete non-starter. Eóin Tennyson appears to have entirely missed that physical and verbal abuse are already illegal in Northern Ireland. There simply isn’t a need for a new law.

“If LGBTQ+ people are being abused, Mr Tennyson and his supporters should be helping them get justice under the existing law. It really is wrong to tell young people in their community that they are helpless in the face of abuse.

“When the Communities Department paid academics from QUB and Ulster University to look into the problem, they struggled for months to find participants. In the end, only ten were found, and not one of their accounts suggested legal change is needed. One person had experienced “prayer, Bible studies and teaching” and another was discouraged from gender transition by someone in a supermarket.² Are these really the sorts of things politicians want to outlaw at the behest of activists?

“The reality is that a new law would see parents, pastors, clinicians and others fearful for the consequences of opposing radical transgender ideology. That fear might not be misplaced, with the Bill proposing serious criminal sanctions for ordinary conversations.”

Legal advice on Tennyson’s proposals

Between December 2024 and March 2025, Eóin Tennyson ran a consultation on the proposals. During this period, The Christian Institute commissioned independent legal advice from Aidan O’Neill KC, one of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers.

In a 70-page critique, Mr O’Neill noted that the draft largely copies a Scottish Bill that was abandoned over legal concerns. Despite Tennyson asking about human rights implications in his consultation, the subsequent Consultation Summary document published on the NI Assembly website gave almost no space to outlining these serious concerns.

Aidan O’Neill KC warned:

“If legislation as proposed by Eóin Tennyson MLA were passed into law by the NI Assembly this would criminalise parents who sought to exercise any form of parental authority or guidance in relation to their children as regards issues around sexuality and gender which conflicted with the official position which may be adopted from time to time by the NI state authorities.”

“Separately if these proposals were passed into law by the NI Assembly, then the law would have a chilling effect on the ability and willingness of religious bodies – and separately, among others, gender critical feminist activist individuals or groups – to teach and preach and lobby and proselytise, on any matters relating to sexuality and/or gender, which conflicted with any of the official positions now adopted by the State.”

“And these criminal sanctions could be imposed, among others:

• on parents who in bringing up their children, do not conform to the Northern Ireland state’s new dogmas on sex, sexuality and gender identity;

• on religious bodies whose teaching and preaching and religious practices in the area of sex, sexuality and gender identity run contrary to the State’s approved doctrine on these matters;

• on political bodies, feminist groups and associations and NGOs and individuals who publicly disagree with, and seek to challenge and change the State’s current orthodoxies on sexual orientation and/or gender identity;

• on medical professionals who in their medical practice would dispute and dissent from what the Northern Ireland state authorities would now stipulate as, to use an Orwellian term, “goodthink” in relation to sex, sexuality and gender identity.”

Notes for Editors:

The full legal opinion can be found here: http://the.ci/nictopinion