‘We’ve waited long enough’: PM urged to ban ‘conversion therapy’ for all
FIVE YEARS since the UK Government first promised to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’, dozens of LGBTQ+ organisations, survivors and support providers have called on the Prime Minister to make its pledge a reality at last.
In a joint letter sent to the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, the Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, and Minister for Equalities, Stuart Andrew, the Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition urged the Government to
publish the long-awaited legislation to ban conversion practices for all LGBTQ+ people in the UK.
On 25th January 2023, the Minister for Women and Equalities told the House of Commons that a draft bill would soon be published before going through ‘pre legislative scrutiny in this parliamentary session’ – though this has not yet happened.
In the open letter to the Government, the Coalition said:
“We are perplexed by these continued delays and can only conclude that your Government is reluctant to protect some of the most vulnerable members of society from this abuse”
‘We have been given repeated assurances that your Government is working ‘at pace’ to bring forward this legislation, but we still have not seen a draft Bill. It has been an exceptionally long road, with unexplained delays in both the publication of the Government’s research as well as the results from your public consultation’.
The signatories added that the delays
‘only serve to embolden perpetrators and result in ongoing harm to many LGBT+ people, particularly young people’
They added:
‘We are perplexed by these continued delays and can only conclude that your Government is reluctant to protect some of the most vulnerable members of society from this abuse’.
‘Conversion therapy’ has been defined by the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK signed by 20 health, counselling and psychotherapy organisations, as:
an umbrella term for a therapeutic approach, or any model or individual viewpoint that demonstrates an assumption that any sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently preferable to any other, and which attempts to bring about a change of sexual orientation or gender identity, or seeks to suppress an individual’s expression of sexual orientation or gender identity on that basis.
The same document says:
‘the practice of conversion therapy, whether in relation to sexual orientation or gender identity, is unethical and potentially harmful.’
Exact details of the Government’s proposed ‘conversion therapy’ ban are yet to be announced, beyond the promise it will protect ‘everyone’. This follows the challenges to the Government following news in April 2022 that the ban would not protect trans people. from attempts to ‘cure’ their gender identity.
The Coalition’s letter concluded with a call to action to commit to a timetable that will ensure the legislation is passed before the end of the current session of Parliament in November.
Speaking to GAY TIMES, Jayne Ozanne, Chair of the Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition, said:
We urge all our supporters to write to their MPs to demand concrete action is finally taken on this issue. Let’s work together to safeguard the LGBTQ+ community and end these barbaric practices once and for all.
AS AN LGBT+ affirming Christian charity, the Open Table Network endorses this call to action. At a meeting of the Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition on Wednesday 5th April 2022, the Open Table Network became a member.
We have already worked in partnership with others to call on the UK Government to do the same, and will continue to do so as part of this Coalition.
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.
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 as one of the signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK.
