Welsh pastors at risk of prosecution from ‘conversion therapy’ ban
by Carys Moseley, Christian Concern:
The Welsh Government has admitted that Welsh pastors are at risk of prosecution from its proposals to ban ‘conversion therapy’ in Wales. This extraordinary admission is written in its recently published Equality Impact Assessment for the current consultation on its LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales. The closing date for this consultation is 22 October and we will be providing guidance on responding to it in due course.
Pushing criminalisation of pastors
The Equality Impact Assessment says this on page 8:
“A proposal within the draft plan to ban conversion therapy practices may restrict religious freedoms and place faith leaders at risk of prosecution.”
As Wales does not have power over the criminal law, we must ask how this would work practically. It cannot make criminal law. So, what could this mean? First, it is possible that this is anticipating that Westminster will pass a law criminalising ‘conversion therapy’. In reality, the UK government has not published its consultation on this yet, and there is no guarantee that it will end up drafting a criminal ban.
Thus, we must take seriously the second possibility, which is that the Welsh Government wants people to be able to report faith leaders to the police for ‘hate incidents’.
Pushing ‘LGBTQ+ inclusion’ in faith communities
The reason for this risk is given in the Integrated Impact Assessment on the LGBTQ+ Action Plan. The section on Religion and Belief says this:
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