AIBU to think the King's Speech ban on conversion therapy is deeply flawed because it includes gender identity?

[BlackTogetherAgain]

I’m genuinely worried about this, which has just been announced in the King's Speech. I completely support banning coercive, abusive practices that try to “pray the gay away” or punish people for being gay or lesbian.

But the way this ban is being pushed - it's clearly far more about “gender identity” than sexuality - feels like it’s going to have serious unintended (or intended) consequences for children, especially girls.

From what I’ve read (including the Cass Review), many children with gender dysphoria have other issues: autism, trauma, mental health problems, same-sex attraction, or have been heavily influenced by social media and peers.

In the past, good therapists would explore all of this with the child and family in a neutral way - “watchful waiting”, therapy to understand the root causes. The vast majority of these children used to grow out of it by adulthood. Now it seems that any therapist who doesn’t immediately affirm a child’s stated gender identity and move towards social/medical transition risks being accused of “conversion therapy”.

That chills exploratory therapy. It stops parents from saying “let’s not rush hormones or surgery, love, let’s talk about why you’re feeling this way”. It turns “affirmation only” into the only legal option.

We’ve already seen cases of detransitioners who say they were rushed and wish someone had properly explored their feelings instead. We know teenage girls are the fastest growing group presenting with this - why aren’t we allowed to ask why?

This ban risks prioritising adult trans activism over child safeguarding. It treats a contested, rapidly changing belief about sex and gender as if it’s the same settled thing as sexual orientation. It isn’t. Sex is real and immutable. Gender identity is a feeling, and feelings - especially in distressed, autistic or gay teenagers - can change.

Am I the only one who thinks we should protect gay kids from being medicalised, support mental health therapy without fear of prosecution and keep parents’ rights intact? Or have I missed something and this ban is actually watertight and safe for children?

I’d really like to hear other mums’ views on this. It feels like common sense has left the building.

GIDS Tavistock before it was closed down

This.

They have to a) define gender identity in law b) make sure it doesn't directly or indirectly impact and affect gay and lesbian people.

Good luck to anyone attempting this.

The gay mens network will take them to court. They've already said as much for some time.

Nowhere inside the United Kingdom for sure

All the definitions needed will sink it.

Links here:

UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/kings-speech-2026-background-briefing-notes (page 62)

And coincidentally:

EU: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1070

So they're against a person who thinks they're something they cannot be, being 'converted' into what they actually are.

How do you 'convert' someone into something they already are?

Every time it's been tried so far it's been abandoned as if this govt thinks the SCJ is complicated.... it ain't seen nothing yet.

Draft Conversion Practices Bill “My Government will bring forward a draft Bill to ban abusive conversion practices”

● Conversion practices are abuse, and the Government will deliver the manifesto commitment to bring forward a trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices. What does the Bill do?

What does the Bill do?
● The Conversion Practices Bill, which will be published in draft for pre-legislative scrutiny, will seek to fill the gaps in criminal law to target conversion practices.
● The Government wants to ensure that the criminal law offers protection from these practices, while also preserving the freedom for people, and those supporting them, to explore their sexual orientation and gender identity.
● The Government is clear that the ban must be balanced and targeted, so as not to impinge on legitimate healthcare and the range of broader support that those exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity might seek or receive. It is also not intended to interfere with people’s right to religious belief and expression.
● There is cross-party and cross-society consensus to see these practices banned. However, we need to ensure that the ban is effective in the long-term. The draft Bill will therefore be put forward for pre-legislative scrutiny, which will allow us to seek expert views from a range of stakeholders, and inform the subsequent legislative approach.
● Reports and case studies highlight that individuals are being subjected to conversion practices today - this is not just an historical issue. These practices are often damaging and have long-term impacts. The Government will act to protect all individuals from harmful and abusive attempts to change their sexual orientation or transgender identity.

Territorial extent and application
● The draft Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales

Key facts
● Conversion practices are often hidden, covert, and associated with shame, which results in a reluctance of victims to come forward and therefore makes it difficult to ascertain the true extent of the problem. However, current evidence consistently shows that conversion practices still happen today.
● A nationally representative survey of 2,000 LGBT+ individuals in Great Britain, conducted by Opinium on behalf of Stonewall in 2024, found that around one in ten (11 per cent) had experienced a form of conversion practice in the previous year.
● A survey of LGBT+ individuals in the UK carried out by Galop in 2022 found that:
○ Nearly one in five (18 per cent) of LGBT+ people in the UK have been subjected to someone trying to change, ‘cure’, or suppress their sexual orientation or gender identity.
○ Transgender respondents were much more likely to report having been subjected to conversion practices (43 per cent).
● In 2017, the Government at the time conducted the National LGBT+ Survey. The open access survey received around 108,000 valid responses from across the UK. Of these:
○ Two per cent of respondents reported having “undergone conversion or reparative therapy in an attempt to ‘cure’ them of being LGBT,” and a further five per cent reported having been offered it.
○ Transgender respondents were much more likely to report having undergone or been offered conversion therapy than non-transgender respondents (13 per cent vs seven per cent).

From https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a046665c0cc74b4523e4d3b/The_King_s_Speech_2026_-_background_briefing_notes.pdf

allow us to seek expert views from a range of stakeholders, and inform the subsequent legislative approach.

Going on past form the 'range' will cover the entire rainbow of genderwangers and nobody else.

I completely agree. Trans ideology IS gay conversion therapy. It attempts to turn gay children into straight adults.

1,000,000%

This cannot work because to define and specify this ideology is to kill it

exactly. It is an opportunity to in many ways push the whole nonsense back even further than it is now

I cant find the exact document, but I think at one time LGB Alliance was suggesting that there should be 2 Bills.

One about sexual orientation, and the other about trans identity.

I think it was their way of making it clear they are 2 different things.

Although presumably you could add up with 2 bills that clash.

Not unlike how the TRA indermined sex in the EA.

And with the LGB Alliance and the Gay Mens Network on the case - along with Sex Matters and all the other organisations, the guys from the trans lobby groups are going to find their demands critiqued to the max. 🙂

Yes they are, and I can confirm that many politicians have had their eyes opened in meetings organised by the political women’s groups and groups such as LGBA and GMN as to the validity of the ‘evidence’ provided by the genderwang groups. Every piece of evidence they provide has either been completely debunked, happened in another country, or was historical (back in the 50’s in some cases).

I mean, seriously?!

"One in ten (10 per cent) of LGBTQ+ people have experienced ‘exorcism’"

A bill like this has been mooted for many years so GC groups have had a lot of time to educate peers and MPs. Only the TRA politicians will get behind this and it will just provide more opportunities to publicise their motives.

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/news/new-research-reveals-alarming-scale-of-conversion-practices-in-great-britain

I am unconvinced by the 'it's not historic' claim. In the same paragraph it becomes evident that no one is talking about LGB, it's all T. All the evidence, all the pressure, all the claims, all about the T.

I suspect on investigation, it will be rather like the claims that domestic abuse had taken place that was actually an ex wife using the name under which she was married to her husband, and the claims that hate crime was committed when a woman said that women don't have penises. It sits on a heavy and awful framework of other people's historic oppression and abuse, but is so often so very loosely and lightly related that without the framework of other people's histories to push, it would not stand by itself.

How?

What did they do that you consider conversion therapy?

They boasted about 'transing' the gay away, which sound like conversion therapy to me.

The GIDS team joked about there not being any gays left after they've finished.

Well, there is a whole book on it: 'Time to Think' by Hannah Barnes

https://archive.ph/mOHg9

Interesting that Malta had such a small proportion of the population supporting a ban on "trans inclusive" conversion practices. I thought Malta was top of the charts for promoting transiness. What changed?

European Citizens' Initiative: Ban on conversion practices in the European Union

https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2024/000001_en

Interesting that Malta had such a small proportion of the population supporting a ban on "trans inclusive" conversion practices. I thought Malta was top of the charts for promoting transiness. What changed?

I suspect nothing changed and it is precisely because of their promotion of transideology