When our community is under attack, we organise, we fight, we overcome…

In 1988, to shore up her splintering base, Margaret Thatcher’s government demonised LGBTQ+ people existence as appeasement to the social conservatives in her party whose support she was losing. Section 28 was the first direct legislative attack on LGBTQ+ people’s lives since the 1885 Labouchere Amendment which had made all (male) homosexual acts of ‘gross indecency’ illegal. 

Ian McKellen, Michael Cashman, Lisa Power and Stonewall’s other founders met round a kitchen table to coordinate a fightback. They agreed to build alliances and do all in their power to challenge a law that was as spiteful and damaging as it was pointless. Working together with a fierce and diverse grassroots lobby, it took tenacity, courage and a great deal of effort to take the government on and win – 15 years later, they did it. Legislation to repeal Section 28 was passed in Scotland on 10 February 2000, and in England and Wales on 18 November 2003. 

Fast forward to 2026, and we again face legislative harm. The foot-dragging of successive government on delivering a long-promised ban on conversion practices for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer people has had a chilling effect on our community – just as Section 28 did.  

Conversion practices deliberately attempt to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity because their identity is deemed inferior. The United Nations and more recently our senior politicians have been very clear this is a form of abuse.  

Those same senior politicians now have the power to outlaw this particular form of abuse. For too long LGBTQ+ people have been left vulnerable to coercive, deeply damaging abuse without protection from the law. Meaningful action has been delayed while the ongoing debate itself has pathologised LGBTQ+ people and left young people, in particular, at increased risk of self-harm, suicide and poorer mental health.  

Our fundamental right to safety is not debatable. Yet debate has continued – for many years and under many successive governments – over when and how a ban on harmful conversion practices can be made law. Since a ban was first promised in 2018, four successive Prime Ministers have failed to deliver it, allowing commitments across multiple Queen’s and King’s Speeches to repeatedly stall when confronted by ideological factions. 

This political paralysis stands in contrast to wholesale expert agreement on the damage these practices cause. NHS England, the Royal Colleges of Medicine and leading legal scholars have one clear, consistent message: conversion practices are abusive as well as ineffective.  

For years, Stonewall and others across the LGBTQ+ sector fought to break the deadlock. Persistent and insistent campaigning dismantled Section 28 and I am so pleased and proud that, working with Saba Ali and the Ban Conversion Practices coalition, we finally have a breakthrough. Seeing the first draft of a bill that will criminalise those who seek to harm our community is a powerful moment for all of us.  

At a time of great turbulence when many people in our diverse and wonderful community need to hear this parliament to say unequivocally that Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer people do not need changing. We are good exactly as we are.  

Stonewall’s vision is a world where everyone everywhere has equal rights. Legislation should protect individuals and communities. This draft bill to ban conversion practices is a significant step towards keeping LGBTQ+ young people and vulnerable adults safe. But it is only one step in the parliamentary passage: we know there are many more ahead on this particular piece of legislation, let alone the wider context of a global rollback on LGBTQ+ rights, rising hate and division, and a significant gap in equality protections for trans people in the UK following the Supreme Court judgment and subsequent EHRC guidance. There is certainly much further to go before the UK is a safe and equal place for LGBTQ+ people to live, work and thrive. 

At Stonewall we will continue to work in coalition with our allies and parliamentarians to ensure the law is changed, and the abuse stops. We know the effort it takes to make real and lasting change – we’ll stay in the fight until the end.