Ireland promises 'conversion therapy' ban while UK delays - OTN responds

Signs saying ‘Ban conversion therapy for all’ at the the Trans Rights Protest in London, April 2022, by Karollyne Hubert on Unsplash.

AS AN LGBT+ affirming Christian charity, we welcome the news that the Irish government intends to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’ which attempts to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

We have worked in partnership with others to call on the UK Government to do the same, and will continue to do so.

The Open Table Network was one of 13 organisations which wrote to the UK Government in February 2022 to say that the only meaningful ban on so-called 'conversion therapy' is one which comprehensively prohibits the practice in all its forms.

We also supported a letter from senior church leaders to the Government in April 2022 saying that we see no justification for the ban on so-called ‘conversion therapy’ excluding trans people.

Members of our communities continue to live with the long-term effects of the trauma caused by this practice, and we see no justification for it to continue for anyone, in any civilised country.

At least three of the major Christian traditions in England have called on the UK Government to ban it (Church of England, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church), and the Association of Christian Counsellors [ACC] is committed to ending the practice of ‘conversion therapy’ in the UK.

We fully endorse the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK signed by the ACC along with 19 other health, counselling and psychotherapy organisations, which recognises that

‘the practice of conversion therapy, whether in relation to sexual orientation or gender identity, is unethical and potentially harmful.’