Labour will introduce a full ban on conversion “therapy” if it wins the election, despite warnings that doing so may encroach on the freedom of parents and therapists to talk to children about gender identity issues, reports the Times.
Sir Keir Starmer has committed his party to a ban on the practice, which aims to suppress a person’s sexuality or gender identity. Labour says that this amounts to abuse.
However, Hilary Cass, the doctor who carried out the landmark review of gender services for children, said that a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban was likely to prompt concern among medical professionals that they might find themselves in a “test case”.
She said that although she supported banning conversion therapy, a practice she described as “dreadful”, she was concerned that it would not be possible to “bulletproof” the legislation.
A ban on conversion therapy was first promised by Theresa May in 2018. Over time, the ban came to exclude transgender people before it was ultimately dropped.
Kemi Badenoch, the women’s and equalities minister, said that when the government looked at similar legislation, it had found there was a “real risk” that the ban could “inadvertently criminalise parents, clinicians and teachers”.
Conversion therapy can include coercive practices such as pseudo-scientific counselling sessions, ingesting “purifying” substances, being prayed over and exorcisms. Successive Conservative governments have described the practices as “abhorrent”, and pledged to ban them.
However, some have warned that, applied too broadly, a ban could encroach upon the freedom of clinicians, teachers, parents and religious leaders to help people understand their sexuality or gender identity.
Cass, in comments made in an interview with the Times in April and published today, said: “It’s just beyond me to know how on earth to do it [legislate for the ban] because it’s about intent – [it’s about] if you’re intending to change somebody’s gender identity.
“I think clinicians will be really worried that if they have conversations with a young person and then they change their gender identity, then they could accuse the person of conversion. Nobody wants to be the first test case. That’s the real challenge.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned in the past about “unintended consequences” from a ban, which it supports, particularly when it is applied to children.
Labour officials believe that they will be able to avoid such problems by including exemptions in the legislation similar to those in a private members’ bill that was proposed by the former MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
Cass warned that the legal threat posed by a conversion therapy ban could drive professionals away from treating people with gender dysphoria.
She suggested exemptions to exclude professionals from any legislation, but warned that it might not solve the problem entirely. She added: “I guess even then people might be fearful. It is a rock and a hard place because we want to stamp out the practice of conversion therapy, but at the same time anything that frightens people off working with these young people is just going to make the situation worse and worse.”
Party sources believe that the changes can be made rapidly, potentially within the first 100 days of a Labour government. An insider said: “It’s about getting in, seeing where the draft bill is up to, and what changes need to be made, so there isn’t really a reason why it has to be delayed.”
