Dear Grassroots member,
The Times recently reported[i] that gay and trans conversion therapy is to be outlawed. The King’s Speech on November 5 is to include a draft bill making it a criminal offence to attempt to force someone to change their gender or sexual orientation.
However, as Janice Turner points out in her excellent article,[ii] the proposed legislation is:
1. Unnecessary
Existing criminal legislation already outlaws the worst of conversion practices.
2. Unwanted
Conversion therapy was hardly mentioned in Stonewall’s annual reports and strategic documents 2015-20.
3. Unkind to those it purports to protect
90% of children outgrew trans identity issues under the Tavistock centre’s initial approach of ‘watchful waiting’. For these children, the proposed legislation would, in effect, make transgenderism compulsory.
4. Unwise
Government cannot guarantee that the legislation would be drafted to protect parents, teachers and others who offer support to children struggling with their gender identity. Definitions of ‘therapy’ or ‘conversion’, and indeed ‘gender identity,’ are highly contested. Trans activists have called ‘watchful waiting’ a form of conversion therapy, which should therefore be banned. If parent and child, or therapist and patient, disagree, who should the police believe? If a lesbian is persuaded to become transgender, could s/he subsequently claim to have been the victim of gay conversion therapy?!
5. Unworthy of a leader of integrity
Such legislation is at odds with Rishi Sunak’s courageous declaration in his conference speech that “we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t. A man is a man. A woman is a woman.” If it this proposal is merely the result of a political calculation that it will gain more votes than it loses, then it is unworthy of the man of integrity which we know Rishi to be.
We would encourage you to write to your MP outlining your concerns. And, if you do so, please pray!
Yours faithfully,
Grassroots conservatives
[i] Steven Swindford, ‘Rishi Sunak set to ban gay and trans conversion therapy: The prime minister will act as MPs fear the party will lose votes from the LGBTQ ccommunity’, The Times, 18 October 2023.
[ii] Janice Turner, ‘Gender-confused teens need time and space: Politicians looking to ban therapy around trans identity for easy plaudits ignore the value of ‘watchful waiting’.’ The Saturday Times, 21 October 2023.