An important look at the inevtable problems with this disastrous proposed conversion therapy ban, which in effect promotes gay conversion – if you’re gay you need to change sex – while pretending to fight it.
…with devastating impacts for parents who are trying to support their children in what is already a hostile environment.
Individual parents, parent-led support groups like @BayswaterSG, and healthcare professionals (including the NHS paediatric gender services) continue to be subjected to a barrage of false accusations that they are engaging in “conversion”. This draft bill adds the threat of criminal prosecution to those wildly inaccurate claims.
Even if the bar for prosecution is high, the chilling effect and the detrimental impact on public understanding of transgender identity is profound. One thing we can be sure of is that accusations of conversion will come thick and fast, as they have done over the last decade. Escaping prosecution will be scant consolation for those subjected to this onslaught of fabrication and intimidation.
The threat of being prosecuted for corporate conversion means that schools will be even more inclined to affirm a child’s attested cross-sex identity, despite safeguarding advice to exercise caution. The potential psychological and lifelong medical consequences for the child will be less of a concern to a school than its own legal risk under poorly defined legislation.
The press release for the bill claims “robust thresholds that protect open conversations, and free speech”, but those are nowhere to be seen in the bill itself.
Instead, the bill relies on subjective assessments to define what constitutes criminally “abusive” conduct, stating that this would need to involve “controlling or coercive words or behaviour” or “use of psychological or emotional pressure”.
Accusations of psychological or emotional abuse are rife when it comes to transgender identity. If this bill becomes effective, parents will justifiably fear that such accusations could now escalate into a threat of a criminal offence that carries a penalty of imprisonment up to 5 years.
But that is not the only concern for parents who must now worry about the prospect of a “conversion practice protection order” should they disagree with their child over the merits of a “transgender identity” as the explanation for the child’s experience. Any parent who fails to affirm their child’s “transgender identity” or who voices concerns about a belief that mind and body can be mismatched in this way could be accused of exerting “psychological or emotional pressure” under the terms of this bill.
None of this will help the parents of a distressed young teenager who is convinced that her “transgender identity” means she needs to source DIY testosterone to modify her body in line with her identity. Or parents frantic with concern over their young adult son, who is failing to hold down work or social relationships, all while pinning his hopes of happiness on a medical transformation with significant risks to his long-term health and well-being.
Most importantly of all, this bill will harm the very people it purports to protect by enshrining in law a belief that is inextricably bound up with rejection of the body and psychological distress.
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Mick Hartley 
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