Story at a glance
- LGBTQ+ advocates in the U.K. are calling on government leaders to remove a portion of a forthcoming ban on conversion therapy practices that would protect those who received “informed consent” from survivors.
- Under the current draft of the proposal, practicing conversion therapy would only constitute a criminal offense in the U.K. if it is delivered to a minor or to an adult without first receiving their “informed consent.”
- The U.K. in December said it would ban conversion practices. Its consultation closes Friday.
LGBTQ+ equality advocates in the U.K. are pushing lawmakers to exclude a loophole from a forthcoming ban on conversion therapy practices that would effectively protect those who received “informed consent” from survivors.
The U.K. government in December pledged to ban conversion therapy, a discredited practice claiming to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Its conversion therapy consultation, collecting public opinion on its proposed ban, closes Friday.
But the current draft worries some Britons, who point to a glaring loophole wherein those who subject individuals over the age of 18 to conversion therapy practices may not be held accountable if they first receive “informed consent.”
As it stands, practicing conversion therapy would only constitute a criminal offense in the U.K. if it is delivered to a minor or to an adult without first receiving their informed consent.
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“The person must be given all of the information about what the therapy involves, including the short and longer term risks,” the proposal reads.
Advocates say the government should take a tougher stance.
“It is fundamental that UK legislation does not carve out a form of abuse that is OK if you agree to it – consider domestic abuse, forced marriage, honor-based violence – you cannot consent to abuse,” Leni Morris, chief executive of the LGBTQ+ anti-abuse nonprofit Galop, told The Guardian.
According to a recent Galop survey, 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ respondents reported experiencing sexual assault that was intended to “convert or punish” them for their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“We hear from a large proportion of people who believe they consented to what happened to them,” Morris said. “I would argue you can’t consent to something that if you do not go through with it, you risk losing your religious connections, your community, your family or your home”.
The English novelist Jeanette Winterson, who has written about being subjected to exorcisms by the Pentecostal church after she came out as a lesbian as a teenager in the 1970s, told The Guardian she believes conversion therapy is “as bad as forced marriage.”
“My view is that if a person isn’t comfortable with their sexual orientation, they should be able to find a therapist to talk through their feelings. There are plenty of uncomfortable heterosexuals, and of course there are people who for religious reasons, and sometimes for family reasons, find their gayness impossible to manage,” she said.
“Therapy is great; conversion therapy is silly. The talking cure isn’t there to talk you out of your feelings; it’s there to help you be you, whatever that means.”
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