Scottish Liberal Democrat MP, Jamie Stone, has publicly criticised the LGB Alliance after the group sent him an email arguing trans conversion therapy should not be criminalised. Stone shared a segment of the email on Twitter where the controversial group said sexual orientation and gender identity should be considered separately when discussing the possibility of a national ban on conversion therapy, which was debated in parliament on March 8.
During the parliamentary discussion, a handful of MPs said any ban must protect the trans community, and equalities minister Liz Truss later confirmed that this will be the case, with the LGB Alliance opposing this prospect. The email also argued against gender affirming therapy for young trans people, saying “affirming a gender non-conforming child as trans…is in itself a form of conversion therapy”. In response to the email, Stone said: “I am a trans rights activist. My party is categorically a supporter LGBTQ+ rights. I will not be effectively lobbied into denying people their basic human rights. Trans rights are human rights. END OF.”
Stone also said the group were “using affirmation therapy as a political football”, which he has “no respect” for. Dr Colt Keo-Meier explained gender affirming therapy to HuffPost in 2017, saying it supports “exploration and development without an a prior goal of any particular gender identity or expression.” They added: “Practitioners of the gender affirmative model do not push children in any direction, rather, they listen to children and, with the help of parents, translate what the child is communicating about their gender identity and expression.”