Conservative MP, Alicia Kearns, has called on the UK government to ensure that any future laws created against LGBTQ+ conversion therapy will be trans inclusive. Kearns, who has represented Rutland and Melton since 2019, reaffirmed her party’s commitment to banning conversion therapy in an article Politics Home, where she also shared her support for the trans community, saying: “Any ban must include not only conversion therapy to change sexual orientation, but also attempts to prevent, against the individual’s wishes, a gender transition.”
She continued: “This must not ban support which in good faith explores someone’s gender identity but stop non-consensual attempts to prevent someone from expressing their own identity. There must, of course, be provisions made for the complex discussions around faith and sexuality too, and any ban should include a recognition of our fundamental freedoms of thought and belief. But that cannot be an excuse for inaction.” Kearns said she has been working alongside 15 LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and eight senior faith representatives to put forward legislative options to ban the controversial practice which she deemed “abhorrent”.
She said it is the government’s duty to protect LGBTQ+ citizens from conversion therapy: “LGBTQ+ History Month is a time to reflect on how far we have come, but also to recognise that as Parliamentarians our work is not done. I hope MPs across the House will back the government’s plans when they come forward because sexual orientation is not a pathology, and we have a duty to make history by outlawing this barbaric and fraudulent practice.” Prime minister Boris Johnson has also spoken out against the practice, saying it “has no place in civilised society”. He pledged to ban it in 2018, but since then little has been done make this promise a reality, despite handful of LGBTQ+ activists urging Johnson to take action.
