Mick Hartley

Well this is depressing, if true:

The government is finally set to announce a new law banning so-called conversion therapy.

ITV News understands that the ban – due to be announced this week – will outlaw attempts to change a person’s sexuality and also attempts to change someone’s gender identity.

The government had previously said that trans conversion therapy would be excluded from a ban.

It’s understood that Downing Street has been surprised by the level of cross-party support – including from within the Conservative Party – for a total ban.

Last March ITV News was passed a leaked document which detailed Boris Johnson’s plans to quietly drop the ban, which was first promised by Theresa May in 2018.

However, following the leak Downing Street swiftly u-turned and a ban on conversion therapy relating to a person’s sexuality was later announced in last year’s Queen’s Speech.

This is confused. A ban on conversion therapy was never a problem – not that it's particularly needed nowadays. The idea of trying to convert a person's sexuality, as promulgated nowadays by basically nobody outside some extreme right-wing religious groups, has been totally discredited. But the general horror at the idea of conversion therapy has been hijacked by trans activists to include attempts to change someone’s gender identity – that is, attempts to talk to troubled young teens about their rapid onset gender dysphoria rather than immediately affirm their supposed new gender identity and set them on an irreversible path to medical transition. 

ITV News is told that No 10 is overseeing the shape of the ban, rather than the Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch.

Interesting. Badenoch has been an eloquent opponent of gender ideology. Is she being sidelined?

There is also likely to be opposition from some quarters both within and outside parliament for a ban on trans conversion therapy, with some arguing that the law may inadvertently criminalise important discussion of a person’s gender identity.

The exact timeframe for passing legislation is yet to be agreed, but ITV News understands that the government is promising to complete the passage of the bill before the next election.

Jayne Ozanne, former equalities advisor to No10 and campaigner for a ban on conversion therapy: “It's good to hear that finally, after nearly 5 years, we are going to get the legislative ban that we have been so long-promised.

"I'm relieved to learn that the government will include full protections for trans people…"

But who are "trans people"? Young kids who've been persuaded on social media that all their puberty problems are because they've been "born in the wrong body"? These kids, mostly girls, often on the autism spectrum, and often – if left alone and given the chance to talk about it – growing up to be gay, really don't need this particular social contagion to ruin their lives.

It's as though a conversion therapy ban was being proposed for anorexia. All anorexics must be affirmed in their belief that they're horribly overweight, and placed immediately on starvation diets. It's their truth, and who are we to deny their lived experience?