Why we should resist this “conversion therapy” ban
by Freddie Attenborough, Artillery Row:
It would enshrine dubious claims as unarguable facts, and it endangers freedom and young people.
Although a proposed ban on “conversion therapy” was left out of the King’s Speech last November, the spirit motivating this stillborn legislation appears to live on, skulking in the shadows of Westminster’s less salubrious postcodes and whispering sweet nothings into the ears of any Parliamentarians that happen to pass by on their way towards “The Right Side of History”.
Just before Christmas, for instance, a Westminster Hall debate brought by Labour MP Christian Wakeford took place in which a succession of Labour MPs urged the government to bring forward such a bill. In addition, a private members bill in the Lords banning conversion therapy is currently at second reading stage, and another private members bill, this one proposed by the hard-Left Brighton MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, is due to be debated in the Commons in March.
Back in January, Keir “the wind watcher” Starmer finally got in on that act, committing the Labour Party to banning all forms of conversion therapy if Labour wins the general election, which will take place later this year.
Flanked by a raft of frontbenchers, including his deputy, Angela Rayner, and the Shadow Women and Equalities Minister, Anneliese Dodds, Sir Keir this week welcomed members of the lobby group LGBT+ Labour to a reception at Westminster in order to celebrate the news. Alongside a “full, trans-inclusive ban on all forms of conversion therapy” Starmer promised the thronging mass of immutable, biological bodies in attendance at the event that the Labour Party “fully support the view that conversion therapy is psychologically damaging abuse”.
Of course, there are some forms of “conversion therapy” that no sensible person would object to being banned, such as attempts to stop someone from being gay or transgender via exorcism, electro-shock therapy, physical violence or food deprivation. No-one is disputing that “treatments” of this kind are appalling, and that they have no place in a free society. But a bill isn’t required to ban them. Such practices are already illegal in the UK.
[…] But if that’s the case, then what is it, exactly, that Sir Keir’s proposed legislation will end up banning?
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