Government fails to meet timeline to ban conversion practices
The Government has failed to meet its own timeline to publish a draft Bill to ban conversion practices. Yesterday’s prorogation of Parliament marks the end of the parliamentary session, and the deadline for the government to meet their commitment set out in the King's Speech.
Conversion practices include any medical, psychiatric, psychological, religious, cultural or any other interventions that seek to change, “cure”, or suppress the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of a person, based on the assumption that any sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently preferable to any other.
These harmful practices continue to cause profound harm and suffering to LGBTQ+ people. The National LGBT+ survey found that 7 per cent of LGBT people have been offered or undergone “conversion therapy” and the Trevor Project found that nearly 1 in 6 LGBTQ+ young people in the UK reported being threatened with or subjected to conversion practices.
Ian , who experienced years of conversion practices said:
The damage conversion practices did to me was enormous, it destroyed my self-confidence, created inner turmoil and conflict and impacted my mental health. For a long time, I minimised what I had been through and the effect it had on me.
The fact that the Government has failed on its commitment to publish a draft Bill by the end of the parliamentary session appalls and angers me. Conversion practices need to be stopped, and they need to be stopped now. The delay has been too long already."
Legislation to ban these harmful practices was first promised by Theresa May back in 2018. Since then, successive Governments have also promised – and failed – to deliver. A commitment to ban conversion practices was included in the Labour Party's 2024 manifesto, and a commitment to publish a draft bill was in the 2024 King's Speech.
Despite this, no draft Bill has been brought forward as the session concludes. Stonewall and the Ban Conversion practices coalition are continuing to campaign for a fully inclusive ban that protects LGBTQ+ people from this harm and are now calling on the Government to publish a draft Bill before summer recess.
Simon Blake OBE, Stonewall CEO, said:
“Government has committed to publish a draft Bill to ban conversion practices by the end of the parliamentary session which has now come to an end.
“We have had repeated assurances that the draft Bill will be published so we remain poised ready to scrutinise it. But make no mistake that it the LGBTQ+ community and allies are disappointed that it hasn't been published and are understandably acutely nervous that it will not be.
“Four different Prime Ministers have promised to ban these abhorrent conversion practices, so this is an unacceptable position to be in.
“We are living in turbulent times for LGBTQ+ rights and many people in the community are feeling increasingly anxious and worried. Every day the legislation is delayed reinforces the feeling that government is not listening to, or caring about LGBTQ+ people and puts more and more people at risk of harm from these abuses.
“A Bill to ban conversion practices is not a nice to have. We should not have to wait any longer. Conversion practices are abuse. LGBTQ+ people do not need fixing or changing. They need to hear and feel that government is going to protect their safety and dignity. Not at some random date in the future. No more delays.”
Stonewall and the Ban Conversion practices coalition are leading the campaign to ban these harmful practices once and for all and are calling on the Government to take decisive action before summer recess at the latest.
