Boris Johnson’s partial U-turn on conversion therapy does not go far enough, activists say – UK politics live
theguardian.comBoris Johnson agreed that a Conservative government would ban conversion therapy - a practice which involves trying to change someone’s sexuality or identity, which mostly happens in certain religious settings.
Since then the government has consulted on the ban, but campaigners, and some news organisations, have flagged up claims that a ban could unintentionally criminalise clinicians and therapists helping people - particularly teenagers - dealing with gender dsysphoria.Last night ITV’s Paul Brand revealed that the government had dropped plans for a ban.
He published extracts from a leaked document saying that Boris Johnson had agreed to shelve the legislation. The document focused on the options for how the U-turn might be announced, and it said that one option might be go public at the time of the Queen’s speech and claim “there was an urgent need to rationalise our legislative programme” because of the Ukraine war and the cost of living crisis. (ITV has not published the whole document, but their report suggests this is not the real reason for the decision to drop the bill.)The report triggered a huge backlash amongst all those concerned with LGBTQ+ rights, for whom the conversation therapy ban was landmark legislation and a test of the government’s entire credibility with this community.
Within hours the trolley was again heading in another direction, and Brand said he had been told by a senior government source that there had been a partial U-turn..
