Criminalising ‘conversion therapy’ will backfire
by Carys Moseley, Christian Concern:
Last Monday, a small number of MPs gathered in Westminster Hall to debate a petition calling for the criminalisation of ‘conversion therapy’ in England and Wales. You can read the entire debate on Hansard and watch it here on Parliament TV.
All the usual deceitful and manipulative talking points were used. It would be tempting to dismiss this event as mere posturing, but the desire for criminalisation is very strong. In addition, the government hinted that it sees ‘conversion therapy’ as extremism.
The biggest problem now in Parliament and the press is the total lack of real debate and critical analysis of this issue. In relation to Monday’s ‘debate’ there is a backstory to this.
Petitions Committee didn’t want to hear people’s experiences
The setting of the debate was in Westminster Hall, which means it was only a discussion with no possibility of a vote leading to legislation being passed. (The Petitions Committee does also have the right to ask for a debate in the House of Commons chamber, which would feel more like a real debate. It did not choose this option.) There is a reason that LGBT activists chose this format: they do not want our side of the argument to be heard in Parliament. We can tell this from the way in which they hounded the House of Commons’ Twitter account on Friday 3 July 2020.
The petition which was debated on Monday attracted the attention of the Petitions Committee of the House of Commons last summer. On 3 July 2020, the House of Commons Twitter account tweeted a survey based on the petition. It asked ‘How does #conversiontherapy affect the #LGBTQ community?’ and ‘Should it be made illegal? What would that mean to you?’ Within hours, the Commons Twitter account was attacked by a mob of LGBT activists led by Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence. They demanded the survey be deleted as it offensively suggested that banning ‘conversion therapy’ was a matter of debate. The House of Commons Twitter account deleted the tweet and apologised for causing offence. It promised a new survey for the following week, but this never appeared.
LGBT activists did not want a real debate. How on earth would they cope with having to debate a parliamentary bill to ban ‘conversion therapy’?
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