A milestone, not a finish line. That's what Inside Out, a national rainbow charity called Thursday's announcement of a redress service for conversion therapy survivors.
"It feels like it's been made a priority, that we've been listened to. They've really involved survivors in the development of the service, and 6 months I think is a really phenomenal time to pull it together," said the charity's managing director, Tabby Besley.
New Zealand's Human Rights Commission (HRC) launched the civil redress process for survivors of conversion practices in Wellington on Wednesday morning.
READ MORE: Kiritapu Allan speaks of own experience with conversion practices
They say between 20-30 survivors of conversion practices helped shape the service, with two of the five HRC team also survivors, one of them being former church pastor Andre Afamasaga.
"It provides a pathway to acknowledge the experiences of survivors and an opportunity to gain some closure. It will help many to begin healing and move forward from their experiences."
"This is a significant milestone, and it will help victims of conversion practices gain access to justice," said Afamasaga.
Rainbow organisations say it's crucial the service was set up by those with lived experience.
"Because it's that saying, 'nothing for us, without us'. By having people with that lived experience involved, hopefully, it means those coming forward who have experienced conversion practices will get the best experience possible from that service, and feel very heard by people who understand what it's like."
Matt Langworthy is the service's lived experience advisor and says while the service might have survivors at the forefront, it's also about educating our wider society, including those who have previously offered conversion therapy.
"There are a number of survivors who are a part of our faith communities still, and we've been really pleased to see affirming churches come alongside this work. I think there's a lot of work still to happen there, and in some of our medical settings as well, but it's been really pleasing to see some of those groups join with us to try and bring this to an end."
The service is free and confidential.
"And it offers an opportunity to meet with people that provided those conversion practices, to explain to them what the consequences were, to meditate together, to find a way to resolve this scenario."
While acknowledging today's milestone, Besley, whose charity Inside Out is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, says more needs to be done.
"There will be a lot of people that won't be coming forward (to use the service) it'll be too much to revisit."
"I think a really big area that still needs to be addressed in this process is actually support for survivors of historical and future conversion practices, similar to how we have ACC for free counselling for those who've experienced sexual violence. So I'd love to see Aotearoa implement something like that to make sure those people who have had those experiences have that mental health support."
For more information on how to access the service, click here.
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