By Maria MacLachlan, Genspect
Labour’s Conversion Practices Bill will make it impossible for gender distressed people to be anything but trans
Should “gender identity” be considered in the same way as sexual orientation? What counts as coercion or abuse? When does religious teaching become a conversion practice? And how can therapists explore whether someone’s feelings about their gender identity might change without risking up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine?
A Deeply Unpopular Bill
These are some of the questions at the heart of the conflict over the recently drafted Conversion Practices Bill, the latest stage in a legislative effort that began under Theresa May’s Conservative government in 2018. In the years that followed, successive Tory administrations shifted from prevarication to firm commitment and back again, while several private members’ bills from MPs on the opposition benches failed to make it through Parliament. These eight years of inertia ought to have been a clue that the bill was untenable, yet some remained oblivious.
The Labour Party’s manifesto pledge in 2024 was uncompromising: the Conversion Practices Bill would rise again regardless of whether it was a good idea, whether anyone wanted it, and in defiance of the fact that the right to disbelieve in gender ideology altogether has been protected since 2021. It reads”