On the first day of Pride Month, Stonewall called on the government to finally ban conversion therapy (Picture: PA)
A long-sought and heavily-delayed ban on conversion therapy must not have a single ‘loophole’, a major LGBTQ+ charity has said.
Conversion therapy, sometimes called reparative therapy, is a discredited practice that aims to forcibly change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
It can come in many forms, from electroshock treatments and talk therapy sessions to aversion therapy and corrective rape.
The government first promised to ban conversion therapy in 2018 but has since been shot by delays, consultations and U-turns over who it should protect.
But the draft legislation will be published this autumn, a top LGBTQ+ rights official at the UN said last month.
Yet campaigners remain wary of how the bill will shape up after so many years, such as whether it will have any ‘loopholes’ to allow the practice to continue.
Then-prime minister Boris Johnson briefly binned the bill only to bring it back – but leave trans people out of it (Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images)
Nancy Kelley, CEO of Stonewall, told Metro.co.uk: ‘As we start celebrating Pride Month around the world, the UK government needs to urgently address its stagnation on LGBTQ+ rights, and get back on track.
‘This includes the need to urgently introduce an inclusive, comprehensive and enforceable ban on all forms of conversion practices before the legislative clock runs out.’
While government data from 2017 says 2% of LGBTQ+ Brits have undergone conversion therapy, a report by Galop found the figure is far higher.
One in five LGBTQ+ have been subjected to someone trying to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, the LGBQT+ anti-violence charity found.
Campaigners have long warned that the ban must include faith-based conversion therapy, such as those conducted by clergy members or religious counsellors that range from ‘praying the gay away’ to exorcism.
Of the people who have endured conversion therapy, 51% had it conducted by faith groups, according to the government’s National LGBT Survey.
While, for a time, the proposals didn’t even protect trans people after the then-prime minister Boris Johnson scrapped the ban altogether before u-turning on a u-turn and bringing it back – only to leave trans people out of it.
Theresa May vowed to ban conversion therapy in 2018 (Picture: In Pictures via Getty)
Though, the government is now set to bring forward a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban, Michelle Donelan, then-culture secretary, said in January.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a UN expert on violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, said in May that government officials told him they are ‘committed’ to publishing draft legislation by autumn.
‘We’ve had five years of delays and u-turns from the UK government,’ Kelley added, ‘and every month that goes by means more LGBTQ+ people are abused and exposed to lifelong harm,’
‘We know that legislation will not be workable or effective if it contains loopholes or carve-outs that don’t cover all LGBTQ+ people.’
To the next government, Stonewall has called for an ‘effective, comprehensive legal ban, protecting all LGBTQ+ adults and children, in all settings, with no loopholes’, the charity wrote in its new plan released today to reverse the UK’s steady decline in LGBTQ+ rights.
Britain’s lack of a ban was flagged by a top European LGBTQ+ rights group as to why the UK has tumbled down its annual index, called the Rainbow Map, from number one in 2014 to 17 this year.
The ban, queer campaigners say, must outlaw both trans and faith-based conversion therapy (Picture: AP)
Policy-makers must ensure survivors are supported and service providers are advised how to ‘identify and support children and adults at risk’, Stonewall added.
Jayne Ozanne, a former member of the government’s LGBTQ+ advisory panel and herself a conversion therapy survivor, said there can’t be any grey areas.
‘The UK government has promised year on year to ban conversion practices, and yet has consistently dragged its feet – one has to ask why?’ Ozanne said.
‘The answer is that there are many who want to continue with these harmful practices and who have lobbied hard to try and create loopholes for their abuse to be sanctioned.’
‘This ongoing delay has only ever served the perpetrators, who feel emboldened by the ongoing delays,’ Ozanne added, ‘it is high time we put victims first and listened to the hell that they have endured, often by those who have meant well but have instead caused life-long trauma.’
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‘We’ve had five years of delays and u-turns from the UK government.’