More than 80 organisations pulled out of the UK government’s international LGBTQ conference due to be held in June after Prime Minister Boris Johnson dropped a plan to ban so-called conversion therapy for transgender people.
The government is wrong to “actively exclude” trans people from the ban, The LGBT+ Consortium, an umbrella body for groups in the UK, said on Monday. “We refuse to stand by and let this happen.”
Johnson’s office sparked a widespread backlash last week when it said it would drop a key Conservative Party pledge to legally outlaw conversion therapy, the practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual.
Hours later, Downing Street U-turned again, saying the government would ban conversion therapy for lesbian, gay and bisexual people as planned, but transgender people would not be protected.
A national poll of Britain’s LGBTQ community five years ago found that 2% of respondents had undergone the therapies and 5% of respondents had been offered them.
The discredited practice, also referred to as reparative therapy or sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, is aimed at attempting to convert individuals to be heterosexual or cisgender, or both. A national poll of Britain’s LGBTQ community five years ago found that 2% of respondents had undergone the therapies and 5% of respondents had been offered them.
The “Safe To Be Me” event has been billed by the government as the UK’s first global LGBTQ conference and aims to “tackle inequality around the world and urge countries to take action”. It is due to take place from June 27 to 29, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first official London Pride marches.
A government spokesperson declined to comment specifically on the announcement, but said the government had a “proud record on LGBTI rights”.
“Recognising the complexity of issues and need for further careful thought, we will carry out separate work to consider the issue of transgender conversion therapy further,” the spokesperson said. “This is a legally complex area and we have a responsibility to ensure unintended consequences are not written into legislation, particularly in the case of under-18s.”
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— Bloomberg
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