by Libby Brooks, Guardian
Exclusive: Simon Blake says progress of government’s bill could be exploited by those attacking rights globally
The new head of Stonewall has pledged to fight for a ban on conversion practices that includes “every member of the lesbian, gay, bi and trans community”, as he said that the progress of Labour’s bill may be exploited by those pursuing global attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.
With the UK government expected to publish draft legislation this spring, Simon Blake said: “It’s really important that a conversion practices bill covers all practices designed to try to change or correct somebody’s sexual or gender identity.”
Interviewed at length for the first time since he took the post, Blake said the bill represented a reset between government, Stonewall and the wider LGBTQ+ sector, after Labour committed in its manifesto to a “full trans-inclusive ban” on conversion practices. This follows an increasingly toxic engagement with the previous Tory administration, in which Liz Truss, while equalities minister, urged all government departments to quit the charity’s workplace inclusion programme and plans for a similar ban fell apart amid moves to exclude trans people and concerns about the introduction of a loophole of “informed consent”.