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Shaneel Lal
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Shaneel Lal
Shaneel Shavneel Lal (born 22 January 2000) is a Fijian-New Zealand LGBT rights activist, columnist and political commentator. Lal is best known for advocating for the ban of conversion therapy in New Zealand.
Lal was born in Nausori, Fiji, to a mixed iTaukei and Girmitiya family on 22 January 2000. Lal comes from a Hindu family and was raised in a Hindu and Muslim community. After attending a Christian primary and high school in Fiji, Lal states that they "grew out of" religion and subscribes to indigenous spirituality.
In Fiji, Lal was put into conversion therapy in an attempt to change their sexuality and gender identity. The elders of the village prayed over Lal to free them of spirits that supposedly made Lal queer. Lal experienced conversion therapy as a challenge to their indigeneity and relationships with their ancestors. Lal argues that precolonial indigenous queerness is distinct from colonial attitudes to and terms for queerness. Lal argues that prior to colonisation, vakasalewalewa were integral to native Fijian society, and that colonisation and Christianity stripped Fijians of their rich queer identities and conditioned them with homophobia and transphobia.
In 2014, Lal moved to New Zealand with their family. Lal joined Otahuhu College and was named dux in 2018.
Lal uses they/them pronouns and has described themself as trans, non-binary, vakasalewalewa and hijra.
In the summer of 2017, Lal was volunteering at Middlemore Hospital when a church leader walked up to them and offered to pray their gay away. When Lal refused, the church leader wished hell upon them.
Lal's speech at the 2019 Youth Parliament to ban conversion therapy received a standing ovation. Following this, Lal was targeted online with homophobic abuse. In an interview with Breakfast in 2020, Lal labelled conversion therapy "state sanctioned torture". Lal told interviewer Jenny-May Clarkson that numerous queer people pray to God to "heal them, or kill them". Following this interview, Massey University lecturer Steve Elers wrote an opinion piece for the Manawatu Guardian, republished by The New Zealand Herald, dismissing the issue of conversion therapy. David Farrier defended Lal in his blog Webworm, and the subsequent media attention led to Elers's opinion column being cancelled.
Lal founded the Conversion Therapy Action Group in 2019 to work towards ending conversion therapy in New Zealand. During the 2020 New Zealand general election, Lal and CTAG pressured the New Zealand Labour Party to commit to banning conversion therapy in New Zealand. Lal worked with the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand to deliver a petition of over more than 150,000 signatures to ban conversion therapy.
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Shaneel Lal
Shaneel Shavneel Lal (born 22 January 2000) is a Fijian-New Zealand LGBT rights activist, columnist and political commentator. Lal is best known for advocating for the ban of conversion therapy in New Zealand.
Lal was born in Nausori, Fiji, to a mixed iTaukei and Girmitiya family on 22 January 2000. Lal comes from a Hindu family and was raised in a Hindu and Muslim community. After attending a Christian primary and high school in Fiji, Lal states that they "grew out of" religion and subscribes to indigenous spirituality.
In Fiji, Lal was put into conversion therapy in an attempt to change their sexuality and gender identity. The elders of the village prayed over Lal to free them of spirits that supposedly made Lal queer. Lal experienced conversion therapy as a challenge to their indigeneity and relationships with their ancestors. Lal argues that precolonial indigenous queerness is distinct from colonial attitudes to and terms for queerness. Lal argues that prior to colonisation, vakasalewalewa were integral to native Fijian society, and that colonisation and Christianity stripped Fijians of their rich queer identities and conditioned them with homophobia and transphobia.
In 2014, Lal moved to New Zealand with their family. Lal joined Otahuhu College and was named dux in 2018.
Lal uses they/them pronouns and has described themself as trans, non-binary, vakasalewalewa and hijra.
In the summer of 2017, Lal was volunteering at Middlemore Hospital when a church leader walked up to them and offered to pray their gay away. When Lal refused, the church leader wished hell upon them.
Lal's speech at the 2019 Youth Parliament to ban conversion therapy received a standing ovation. Following this, Lal was targeted online with homophobic abuse. In an interview with Breakfast in 2020, Lal labelled conversion therapy "state sanctioned torture". Lal told interviewer Jenny-May Clarkson that numerous queer people pray to God to "heal them, or kill them". Following this interview, Massey University lecturer Steve Elers wrote an opinion piece for the Manawatu Guardian, republished by The New Zealand Herald, dismissing the issue of conversion therapy. David Farrier defended Lal in his blog Webworm, and the subsequent media attention led to Elers's opinion column being cancelled.
Lal founded the Conversion Therapy Action Group in 2019 to work towards ending conversion therapy in New Zealand. During the 2020 New Zealand general election, Lal and CTAG pressured the New Zealand Labour Party to commit to banning conversion therapy in New Zealand. Lal worked with the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand to deliver a petition of over more than 150,000 signatures to ban conversion therapy.