UK Consultation on Conversion Therapy - Guidance for your response

Just finished my response using the Sex Matters quick response form.

Even now is still not too late. Only takes a few mins and every voice counts .

<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=sex-matters.org/take-action/conversion-therapy-consultation" target="_blank">http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=sex-matters.org/take-action/conversion-therapy-consultation/

just bumping for the closing hour or so - wish I'd looked here first as i made up my own response instead so it was probably a bit lame. (actually spotted it was today as the reminder was helpfully provided by Nancy Kelly lol)

It’s really so good

The sex matters quick response was fab - took less than 5 mins and as the deadline approaches that might be a good option for some.

Bumping in case it causes anyone else to put in some comments before the deadline

@megaz

In response to your previous post, you might find a good explanation about the problems with this proposed bill in the link below from the LGB Alliance.

lgballiance.org.uk/2021/11/30/lgb-alliances-response-to-the-government-consultation-on-banning-conversion-therapy/

Link for advice on contributing to the bill to ban conversion therapy.

8 hrs to go approximately till the deadline

sex-matters.org/take-action/conversion-therapy-consultation/

I've just submitted my response. Not long to get it in now...

Done! Thanks for the links on this thread.

@megaz
Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the gender issue is separate from conversion therapy. From my understanding, conversion therapy is where they try (and fail) to change someone's sexuality. What has that got to do with trans issue? I am a gay male and I want that banned understandably as everyone should be allowed to be straight, bi, gay etc.

You're absolutely right, sexual orientation has nothing to do with gender identity and being transgender.

That is the reason why I'm opposing the bill as it is currently proposed - I want conversion therapy banned when it's attempting to change someone's sexuality.

But I want the option of therapy to be available (in fact I think it a necessary step) for people considering and/or undergoing gender transitioning. Therapy can be a source of information and support, an important step along the path of transitioning especially before and alongside medical interventions.

The proposed bill wrongly conflates these 2 very separate and independent issues, sexual orientation and gender identity.

“@megaz

“Megaz

hardtobelieve
www.transgendertrend.com/guide-government-conversion-therapy-consultation/

Excellent guidance here from Transgender Trend to assist in directly responding to the UK Government Conversion Therapy Consultation.
You can cut and paste most of it and/or add you own comments on the link.”

[megaz] “Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the gender issue is separate from conversion therapy. From my understanding, conversion therapy is where they try (and fail) to change someone's sexuality. What has that got to do with trans issue? I am a gay male and I want that banned understandably as everyone should be allowed to be straight, bi, gay etc.”

No, megaz, that’s the very problem. If this were just about banning conversion therapy for gay, lesbian and bi-sexual people there would be no issue. Virtually no one would disagree.

What has happened is that being Lesbian, Gay, and Binary have been conflated with being Trans for the purposes of the bill.

Perhaps another poster can better explain and possibly the LGB Alliance has written about this.

It would be terrible if talking therapies were effectively banned in relation to young people who feel they are trans.

This bill is like a Trojan horse for bringing the transgender agenda under the radar until it is fixed in law. But there is too much confusion at present regarding unbiased research, or the legal definitions of the terms used, and the bill is being rushed through on this wrong basis.

Trans should be treated as an entirely separate issue at another stage.

Children and young people who are gender non-conforming need access to talking therapies to explore their feelings of dissonance with their biological sex without instant affirmation, puberty blockers, or a planned progression to surgeries, while they grow up. Many gender non-conforming young people with gender dysphoria may have faced sexual abuse or other traumas, be autistic, feel socially isolated or ‘different’, be gay but have subconsciously taken in homophobia from their family or peers, or even have been influenced by peer pressure into rapid onset dysphoria.

In some cases becoming trans gender even is a way of making a gay child appear heterosexual.

Given the chance for talking therapy, in many cases, gender non-conforming or gender dysphoric children, will desist from being transgender once they are adults. Some will be gay, some not. None will have undergone life changing, damaging interventions.

Should they still feel they are transgender as adults then they will have had the chance to be sure.

Just bumping because this is the last day to fill in the consultation if you haven't.

@megaz that is what we would all want conversion therapy to mean. But unfortunately there is an agenda for it to mean more than that. And when you look at the wording it definitely could capture any attempt to spend time with a young child confused aboht their body and how they feel towards it to help them become more comfortable in themselves without the need for life altering surgery or medication. Hence this thread: we all want what you want. But we don’t want it to be any more than that and the government are in danger of stumbling into accidentally making things illegal which they probably don’t want to make illegal. Which is why I am speaking to my MP this morning

@TurquoiseBaubles @OhHolyJesus thank you so much

I think one of the key points it this would put gender identity on the statue books, therefore lending it weight, when it's an ideological position that is deeply homophobic and therefore at odds with the aims of the ban.

I have an issue with how trans widows are forgotten in this as these women (let's face it it's rarely men) are being told they are lesbians because their male partner self IDs as a woman. That is also conversion therapy (via a GRC )as it involves trying to change someone's sexuality (even though obviously their partner isn't actually female and so isn't in a same-sex relationship).

I haven't had coffee yet so hope that's clear. My submission focused on children but I will write to my MP about it so to cover the other points. Good idea!

Just did the sex matters quick response form, been meaning to do it since before Christmas! Thanks for the prompt.

No-one wants to convert gay children to being straight. But most people would rather children didn't feel the need to have complex medical alternations (including sterilisation) to feel happy.

I have a session with my mp this morning on this subject. Key sound bites I shd raise?

The Sex Matters web site has the short and long version forms to fill in.

“Sex Matters will send all responses received before 11:45 on 4th February 2022 automatically to the government consultation.”

Just done mine. I am such a last minute person because I was planning to do it on the previous last day in December!

I used the sex matters site and wrote out answers on a document so I could copy and paste them in. They say that the short version should only take 10 mins and the full one an hour, so well worth having a go.

23:45

Oh God I've nearly missed it. What time will it close tomorrow?

Bump

I'm drafting my response at the moment too. It is so important that they get the message that gender identity conversion therapy is a very different matter to gay conversion. Hopefully enough people will register their concern about the lack of definition and lack of evidence to support this part of the proposal. The Sex Matters site makes it quite quick and straightforward.