Thank you for contacting me about the government’s proposed legislation regarding a ban on conversion therapy.
I share your concerns about this proposed legislation and that is why I, along with many of my fellow Conservative MPs, recently signed a letter to the Prime Minister outlining our objections to the proposed measures and asking him not to include it in the upcoming King’s Speech which will set the legislative agenda for the next year. I am concerned that the Bill will have regrettable unintended consequences, especially for Children and that the Government has consistently been unable to properly define ‘conversion therapy’ or specific practices the Bill seeks to ban. All of the appalling practices people think of as ‘gay conversion therapy’ are already illegal as forms of abuse, coercion and assault. Furthermore the Government Equalities Office has conducted extensive research and has been unable to find evidence of these practices happening in Britain today.
Much like yourself, I am alarmed that the Bill will include a ban on ‘trans conversion therapy’. This will enshrine the idea of ‘gender identity’ into law, and as you say it may become illegal for someone, such as a parent, to counsel a child that they should not ‘change gender’. At a time when this Government is actively pushing back against the harms of gender ideology in our schools and public institutions, it would be unthinkable to take the step of putting it into statute.
Given the recent scandal of the Tavistock Clinic and the explosion in the numbers of school children who are ‘transitioning’, many with lifelong consequences, the chilling effect of this Bill would be incredibly dangerous. We already have a whole generation of children being harmed by gender ideology; the idea that no one will be allowed to challenge this is unconscionable. Such a ban would also be in direct conflict with the Prime Minister’s recent statement at the Conservative party conference that ‘a man is a man and a woman is a woman’.
In other countries the results of banning ‘conversion therapy’ have been disastrous. In Canada, parents are in jail for refusing to accept that their daughter has become a boy. If a child seeks help from a GP for ‘gender distress’, the GP by law must affirm their transition. For this reason countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands have halted plans to introduce a similar ban.
Some believe the Bill can be protected from unintended consequences but this is simply wishful thinking. All legislation can be amended and once the government has published the Bill, it cannot control the outcome. We know from previous Bills that many on the Labour benches and in the Lords will attach extreme amendments, negating any careful drafting or legitimate exemptions this Government tries to put in.
I take this issue very seriously and I know many of my fellow Conservative Members of Parliament do too. Rest assured we will be active in pushing back against the Prime Minister on this issue and will continue to protect the freedom of speech and freedom of religion which you rightfully identify as core parts of British national identity.
