Rishi Sunak finally set to ban gay and trans ‘conversion therapy’
Last month, it was reported that Sunak was considering shelving plans for the ban
Rishi Sunak is now expected to go ahead with a ban of so-called ‘conversion therapy’, five years after it was promised as a Conservative Party pledge.
‘Conversion therapy’ is a debunked and outdated practice that seeks to change a person’s sexuality and/or gender identity.
The World Health Organization and many health experts and organisations globally have long condemned the practice.
According to The Times, the Prime Minister will include a draft bill at the upcoming King’s Speech.
It will reportedly include a proposed ban on attempts to change someone’s sexuality or gender identity in England and Wales.
If the ban goes through, it will make conducting the above a criminal offence.
Theresa May first made the promise back in 2018 when she was serving as PM. However, it has faced numerous delays and setbacks in the past five years.
Last month, it was reported that Sunak was considering shelving plans for the ban.
This was believed to be due to some ministers’ perception that a ban “has proven problematic or ineffective in other countries.”
It was thought that officials were instead working on an “alternative solution”. This would have involved highlighting “existing laws that the government believes already criminalise several aspects” of so-called ‘conversion therapy’.
A government spokesperson told Attitude: “No one in this country should be harmed or harassed for who they are and attempts at so-called ‘conversion therapy’ are abhorrent.
“That is why we are carefully considering this very complex issue.”
The government has been criticised in recent weeks, for various comments made about the LGBTQ+ community – particularly on trans people.
At the Conservative Party conference, Sunak launched yet another attack at the trans community by saying that people “can’t be any sex they want to be.”
He said during his closing speech: “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t.”
“A man, is a man, and a woman, is a woman. That is just common sense,” he added.
Elsewhere, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been condemned for remarks made against LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, and trans women.
She backed Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s plans to ban trans women from female NHS wards.
”Trans women have no place in women’s wards or, indeed, any safe space relating to biological women,” Braverman said in a Sky News interview.
“The health secretary’s absolutely right to clarify and make it clear that biological men should not have treatment in the same wards and in the same safe spaces as biological women.”
Elsewhere, last month she argued that being gay and fearing discrimination wasn’t enough to qualify for asylum.
Attitude has contacted the Prime Minister’s office for comment.