The Practice

Conversion Therapy is badly named as it is neither a medical, professional or legitimate approved practice.  In short it is a set of discredited techniques employed by unqualified (or at best badly our of date qualified) practitioners that claim to be able to "correct" or "cure" a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.  This has been proven to not work and to cause untold distress to the victims of the practice.  Unfortunately many people, often children, or sent to these practitioners by well-intentioned parents looking to help their children when they reveal their orientation or identity or their concern that they may be different.  Again, unfortunately, far too many of these practitioners are associated with churches - although it is very true to say that many churches have condemned the practice, some still condone it.

It is still legal and practiced within the UK to this day.

True therapy for those with sexual orientation or gender identity questions or concerns is to try to support the person and allow them to explore their selves to come to terms with their concerns.  It concentrates on supporting the person and helping them and if it concludes with the person determining that they do not need any further intervention then this is as valid a result as if it determines that they do and in the latter case the therapy will lead into the next stages.

Conversion Therapy on the other hand starts from the premise that the person must fit into a cis-gender heteronormal personality - this is completely opposite to anything that could be considered therapy.  The techniques include practices such as:

• shaming - making someone feel ashamed of their feelings or self
• humiliation - being put into positions or situations where the victim is humiliated, shouted at, made to look ridiculous, embarrassed, etc
• water-boarding - a technique that is used to torture prisoners
• blood confessions - being forced to write a "confession" in the victim's own blood
• self-harm - whenever the thoughts of being different occur, the victim is forced to self-harm
• suicide - this may seem contrary but some practitioners will regard anyone that commits suicide as a success
• many more (see response below)

The actual success rate of this practice is very low as many of the survivors are still trans or gay but they often suffer from severe mental distress as a direct result of this experience.  Many suffer from PTSD and severe depression and this can be for many years or even for the rest of their lives.  For many that the practitioners claim to have "cured", they have found it easier to lie to themselves and others and to go back into hiding.

This is the reason that the United Nations have classified Conversion Therapy as torture and so many countries around the world have already brought in a ban on the practice that includes the entire LGBT+ community.

The Government

For the past several years the UK government has promised a complete ban on Conversion Therapy for all of the LGBT+ community and in 2022 it was revealed in a leak that the government had decided not to introduce such a ban - this was U-turn number one.  There was an immediate and wide-spread outcry against this and within hours the government announced that they would introduce a ban but that it would exclude transgender people - this was U-turn number two.  The exclusion also caused a wide-spread and immediate outcry but to date the government has not announced U-turn number three to remove the exclusion and several protests around the country have been and continue to be held including one held outside Downing Street where more than 3,000 people of all descriptions turned up (this was reported accurately by ITV News who were present but not by the BBC that were not).

Laura Farris

I, and many other members of the community have written to our MP Laura Farris to express our concerns about the exclusion and the lack of any genuine explanation for this.  She responded with a stock answer to all and even when someone complained about the stock answer they just received the exact same response back.  This response was:

Thank you for writing to me about the Conversion Therapy Ban.
I want to begin by reassuring you that the Government’s decision to remove trans matters from the Bill is in no way an indication that it is in favour of conversion therapy for trans people or anyone else. 
The issue has been complicated by the evidence that the Government has heard from psychiatrists, counsellors and other professionals working in the area. I attended one of the meetings myself with three psychiatrists who worked with young people with gender dysphoria. Those professionals said that they often robustly challenge the child’s stated desire to medically transition (a majority of whom did not end up going ahead) but that in the process they were often accused of trying to ‘talk them out of it’. Given that “conversion therapy” is not defined in the Bill, they feared their work could be caught by it. Of course, this is difficult sensitive work involving impressionable and vulnerable young people. They do not provide this counselling out of any hostility to trans people but because once children start on puberty blockers they are starting down a path of irreversible change. They told us that the majority of children they treat settle into their gender and do not pursue gender reassignment surgery in adulthood, however they often reach this decision as a result of counselling and their gender identity can be the subject of robust discussion in the process. These professionals thought that the Bill would severely restrict their freedom to work and that many would simply decline to take on these cases for fear of being criminalised.
In addition to this, the Keira Bell case is due to be heard by the Supreme Court later this year. You will recall that Keira Bell is a young woman who regrets changing her gender, arguing specifically that her assertion that she wanted to transition was not sufficiently challenged by medical professionals and she was set down a pathway of irreversible change. She has now returned to her female gender identity but has had her breasts removed, is infertile and suffers from genital atrophy and suffers severe psychological consequences as a result. Now in her 20s, she is suing the Tavistock Clinic for prescribing puberty blockers when she was a teenager on the basis that children cannot give informed consent to irreversible hormone drugs. Though not directly related, the Supreme Court decision could have created a tension between the Conversion Therapy Bill which will prohibit attempts to talk people out of transitioning and common law principles, if the Supreme Court find that Keira could not give informed consent.
As the Equality and Human Rights Commission have said, it is very hard to get this legislation right and have urged caution. And the interim Cass Review into the treatment of gender dysphoria highlighted the special considerations that apply when it comes to talking therapies and the clinical care of under-18s with gender dysphoria. I attach a copy of it here for you to consider (Interim report – Cass Review (independent-review.uk)). In particular, Dr. Cass found that there was a dominance of girls, and high prevalence of children with autism, and those who are same-sex attracted who were presenting with gender dysphoria. These findings alone highlights the need for care and further research into the reasons for this, before proceeding with a legislative ban. 
In a nutshell then, the Bill risked creating a chilling effect where clinicians would not feel able to raise concerns or suggest alternative pathways to young people presenting with gender dysphoria, because of a fear of the accusation that they “had an intention to convert” and so risking criminalisation. Given these difficulties, the Government has removed trans matters from the scope of the Bill.
I would just add finally that when the Government conducted its consultation into trans conversion therapy, there was scant evidence that it was actually happening in the UK. Some examples of hostile conduct that had taken place are already criminal acts under existing legislation such as the Sexual Offences Act, the Offences against the Person Act, the Protection from Harassment Act and the Domestic Abuse Act. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t an important argument that these matters should be kept under review, and that legislation might be appropriate in the future in some different form, but for now the intention is that more research, analysis and evidence is required before the Government moves to legislating in this very sensitive area.
Thank you again for writing to me
With best wishes
Laura
Laura Farris MP
Member of Parliament for Newbury

None of us that received this response was in any way satisfied by it and the LGBT community in the form of this group and Newbury Pride put forward a response that is below and that has also been sent to local papers.

Dear Laura Farris MP

As you have sent the same letter to several people we have decided to respond as a community: from the local trans support group Proud To Be Trans in West Berkshire; and from Newbury Pride.  LGB with the T.

It is hard to accept your assurance given the statements you then made in your response which are not based in fact or law. It is also difficult to reconcile the fact that the UK government has made this decision, yet other major governments around the world have had no similar concerns in introducing such bans for the entire LGBT+ community, most notably this year with France, New Zealand and Canada instating full legal bans, the French ban was introduced unanimously. The UK government’s double U-turn is incomprehensible to most people here as demonstrated by the government’s own YouGov poll published on 12th April with only 3% surveyed being in favour of the governments current position in creating an LGB exclusive ban. If more people were aware of what Conversion Therapy involves, this figure would be even lower.

Being transgender is a natural and healthy variation that has always existed in all societies and does not need nor is it possible to be changed.  It is neither an illness nor an ideology, therefore, it cannot be chosen, caught, coerced or converted and it most certainly cannot be cured.  Medical treatment can seek to alleviate the consequences of the condition and the start point for those who choose to do so is a thorough and detailed examination and analysis of the person’s gender identity and degree of gender dysphoria along with any other conditions or illnesses they may be suffering from alongside being transgender. This is a process that is undertaken by experts in the field of gender dysphoria and identity and is conducted using the best medical understanding and is one of the most tightly controlled medical processes someone can undergo and has one of, if not the highest satisfaction rates of any medical treatment, leading to more functional and productive lives for those involved.  People are put through multiple independent assessments before any medical intervention is undertaken and remember that no irreversible changes or surgical interventions can occur until the person is an adult.  In fact, the degree to which people seeking gender treatment are interrogated in the UK goes against international guidelines as being too severe. In contrast, conversion therapy is practised by individuals with no medical training and starts from the basis that being LGBTQIA+ is wrong or harmful.  The best outcome for someone going through conversion therapy is PTSD and trauma from the techniques and the stress of repressing their identity. If the “psychiatrists” you spoke with have concerns about their “robust questioning” then perhaps it would be best for them to re-consider these practices in-line with best international practices for gender identity care.

Conversion Therapy uses tactics such as shaming, grooming, humiliation, water-boarding, forcing “confessions” to be written in the person’s own blood, freezing baths, encouraging the person to self-harm or even to commit suicide.  This is all to force denial of the person’s natural biological condition.  The examples above are all practices that have been in use in this country in recent years and naturally are outlawed in most civilised countries.  The UN classes conversion therapy as torture, and it has repeatedly been shown to cause significant long term psychological damage to those who experience it. You should really consider talking to survivors of this process to understand the severe damage it can cause as well as realising that as they are still trans the process does not work – some of these survivors are your constituents and have been trying to talk to you about this subject. Torture is torture and that doesn’t change depending on who it is practised upon.

We know and include many of the people in the LGBT+ community who have had experience of this vile practice and know that it is practised far wider than you claim – in fact a recent government report has shown that 2% of LGB people have been subjected to and a further 5% offered conversion therapy, for trans people these figures are 4% and 8% respectively (see below). That the government can propose a ban on torture for one section of the LGBT community but condone it for another is nothing but bigotry and it is obvious from the statistics that the current legislation you listed are insufficient to stop this practice happening.

For politicians to say it is not possible to create legislation that can both recognise and protect clinicians supporting trans people while outlawing targeted torture techniques is ridiculous, and hypocritical for them to do so whilst continuing to support the current Gender Recognition Act whose extremely restrictive legislative requirements stop the majority of trans people getting legal protection.

The Keira Bell case and the Cass report are familiar dog-whistles from the loud but small group of extremists trying to eradicate trans people from society on ideological grounds and can be refuted by anyone with a sound understanding of the subject matter. Additionally, the Keira Bell case has not been submitted for appeal at the Supreme Court as you claimed. It is highly unlikely that it can be appealed as the grounds open for such are extremely limited. It is very concerning that you would consider that one patient’s dissatisfaction should outweigh the tens of thousands that have been helped by the treatment and who have gone on to live happy and satisfied lives. Gender transition medical treatment has higher rates of satisfaction even than heart surgery with under 1% of those treated regretting it. The majority of so called ‘detransitioners’ do so because of family or church pressure and about half of these people re-transition later. Transgender people have one of the highest rates of suicide and attempted suicide for any sector of society at over 40% but transitioning and acceptance reduces these rates to similar to that of the general population. This week alone one of us has been contacted for reassurance by someone contemplating suicide as a direct result of this announcement and that of the EHRC.

The Cass report has been formulated by a doctor who admitted to having little understanding of the particularities of gender identity or gender dysphoria care or treatment. It is riddled with inaccuracies and in some cases untruths many of which are once again taken directly from the playbook of the anti-trans movement – for example she claims that the long-term effects of puberty blockers are unknown, this medication has been in use to treat conditions such as precocious puberty since the 1950s,  and it is known that if these are withdrawn then puberty will continue as normal with only a pause.

Autistic people are well known to be more likely to be transgender.  This is not due to ‘being led astray’ or being confused, instead it is well known that neurodiverse people in general have higher rates of being transgender across classes, IQ levels, education, political affiliation and family background. A landmark study in the peer reviewed ‘Nature Communication’ (see below) of almost 642,000 people found a strong link between neurodiverse conditions and being transgender, with no other variable linked.

Most people believe it is time that politicians stopped pandering to a small group of extremists with false ideologies – whose arguments do not stand up to any proper critical scrutiny. It is also time that those same politicians stop treating transgender people as second-class citizens by standing up to the extremists trying to eradicate us and starting to deliver the services and legislation that trans people so desperately require. We have no choice in what we are, but you have a choice in how you treat us and how you are remembered by history. It is time to start listening to those in the community who this ban directly effects, and those who have genuine specialist knowledge.

So many members of the community who have received the same response letter from you have found it to be lacking in understanding of the situation that trans people find themselves in and the real-world effect that your and your colleagues’ decisions have, and the parroting of easily identifiable rhetoric from anti-trans groups is regrettable to say the least.

Yours

Andrea Brookes and Graham Reese on behalf of Proud To Be Trans In West Berkshire and Newbury Pride

‘Nature Communications’ research study into the link between neurodiverse conditions and being gender diverse  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7415151/

Government report on prevalence of conversion therapy in the UK

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-prevalence-of-conversion-therapy-in-the-uk/the-prevalence-of-conversion-therapy-in-the-uk