Boris Johnson defends decision to exclude trans people from ‘conversion therapy’ ban
The Prime Minister has argued it is not “reasonable” for children to make decisions on their gender without parental involvement.
Speaking at a hospital today (6 April), Johnson stated the decision the exclude the transgender community from the ‘conversion therapy’ ban was done to consider the “complexities and sensitivities” of the issue, Sky News reports.
The Prime Minister continued, stating the move would not “diminish our determination to tackle prejudice wherever we can”. Johnson defended his decision to pull back on the government’s initial ‘conversion therapy’ plans and argued that parents must be involved in a child’s decision to go ahead with “irreversible treatments”. “I don’t think that it’s reasonable for kids to be deemed so-called Gillick-competent to make decisions about their gender or irreversible treatments that they may have.
I think there should be parental involvement at the very least,” he said. The medical term “Gillick competence” refers to a child’s ability to give full consent to a procedure such as changing gender.
