Conversion Bill Consultation closes Monday at 5

[DennisNoelKavanaghOffTwitter]

Hey everyone and sorry for interloping on mumsnet again, it's Dennis Noel Kavanagh from Gay Men's Network.

Just to say the call for evidence for the Pre Legislative Scrutiny Committee closes Monday and it's really really bloody important MPs hear from actual parents. I regard this legislation as "parent facing/focused" and I genuinely believe it will cause utter misery for parents in an already difficult situation which would become an active prosecution risk.

Sex Matters have a quick tool you can use to respond (quote tweeted in the first post below) if you're able and I'm going to record and audio guide piece to camera either tomorrow evening or at any rate before the weekend just going through the issues.

Really vital parliament hears from parents on this so for anyone who has time it's much appreciated - you don't have to be an expert or lawyer or anything and you don't have to answer all the question, but it's different to a normal consultation and you upload a word document rather than fill in an internet form which I realise is a bit intimidating as there's so many questions.

Anyway, many thanks for allowing me here and to all who have responded or are able!

https://x.com/Jebadoo2/status/2120206815669457291?a=Pyn2ErHGsaTYBKRLK6c&s=20

Thank you @DennisNoelKavanaghOffTwitter, and thank you beyond measure for your contribution to the consultation last week. To be honest, many of us on here are feeling a bit hopeless about this - it’s very heartening to have your voice joining ours.

Thank you @DennisNoelKavanaghOffTwitter for all your intelligent, incisive analysis 💐

I was thinking how the fuck do i even begin to approach this herculean task, but you've inspired me to check out the sex matters tool (Ive used their reply to consultation tools before and its always easier/ less time consuming than I think its going to be).

Thank you @DennisNoelKavanaghOffTwitter I am the parent of a desisted trans identified teen. I have submitted my evidence and urge others to do so if at all possible.

I would definitely be caught by this legislation if it had been around while our DD’s friend had been reporting us for abusive acts (on multiple occasions). It was all hideous enough as it was without being faced by the prospect of court and potentially prison.

For anyone who thinks the criticism of this Bill is exaggerated I can testify to the complete upside down trying to stand against the gender affirmative ideology to protect your kid throws you into. It’s unbelievable and completely destabilising. If this Bill gets through a whole lot of kids will be harmed

ETA hurried clarification- we didn’t conduct any abusive acts on our daughter just to be clear. The facts didn’t stop the accusations though

Thank you so much OP. Your response from the Gay Men's Network was excellent and honestly should be enough on it's own to stop this bill but we're apparently in the upside down.

I've said on many threads but will say again here, this bill will cause more abuse than it stops. It will have a chilling effect on the very relationships that safeguard children. I can only think this is deliberate since the bill isn't needed at all for any of the things it claims to be for (since they're all illegal already).

I'm going to respond. Wasted quite some time today on the awful AI tool of the FSU so going to go old school and just write it myself. Not only am I a parent but also work in a field adjacent to education and can see the absolute disaster it will cause in already stretched schools.

I plan to respond, so thank you for the reminder OP. Also thank you for taking your fight to parliament to stand up against this utterly nonsenical Bill. If it becomes law, the ripple effect of harm that it will spread is almost impossible to conceive. There would be a generation of permanently damaged gay, lesbian, autistic and vulnerable children and young adults (and their broken-hearted parents, possibly in prison) who had no idea that their families were simply trying to keep them safe.

It completely blows my mind that I would have been a criminal for the neutral way that I supported my daughter when she was actively gender questioning.

Please please please do submit your concerns.
It can be done here
https://committees.parliament.uk/submission/4010/#/evidence/4010/call-for-evidence

We must stop this bill and Monday is the deadline.

Some handy links here in this post that I'm re-posting:

Have no doubt if the #ConversionPracticesDraftBill becomes law we will have self identification enshrined in law. Self identification of the opposite sex, any sex, both sexes at once, or even a different species‬
‪Family conversations will be fraught with worry. ‬
Worry that mum or dad, & siblings, could be criminalised for saying the wrong thing. The prospect of the family being broken up, parents (& siblings) criminalised & facing 5 years in prison will be an uninvited guest in every home‬
‪Safeguarding will be destroyed.‬
In schools, after school club activities, church and sports, safeguarding will no longer exist. Who will dare support safeguarding if in doing so they face the prospect of 5 years in prison?
These are not hyperbolic fantasies. Criminalisation for speaking the truth
about biological sex is embedded in the Conversion Practices Draft Bill.
In 2018 women took to the streets to raise awareness that self identification was being sneaked in under the revision of the Gender Recognition Act.
We won that fight. But claiming sex is based on a feeling not biology rumbled on for another seven years.
Meanwhile women lost their jobs, were doxed and harassed. All for knowing sex is real.
It took 7 years before the Supreme Court clarified sex in the Equality Act refers to biological sex not whatever is on a Gender Recognition Certificate or a feeling in a man’s read.
We should not be having to fight the same fight against self identification today.
If we lose this fight and the #ConversionPracticesDraftBill becomes law there will be no women’s spaces (in real life or online) free from men in dresses (men with a sexual fetish). Children and those with special needs will lose safeguarding.
Destransitioners will never be able to receive proper help with their detransitioning.
If we lose this fight and the #ConversionPracticesDraftBill becomes law 'No debate' will be back but on steroids!
Help keep self identification off the statute books
Write to the select committee of MPs & Lords who are supposed to be scrutinising the Draft Bill.
Sex Matters have a handy template to help with for your submission:
https://sex-matters.org/posts/publications/evidence-template/
Once you have composed your submission go to
https://committees.parliament.uk/submission/4010/#/evidence/4010/call-for-evidence
& follow through until you get to SUBMIT
DON'T GIVE UP!
Future generations are depending on you.
Deadline: Monday, 16 November 2026 at 5 pm.
#BinTheBill

Thank you for the link! I was trying to do it yesterday but I wasn't able to find where to do it.

Bumping

Bumping

My problem with my response is I want to say 'I don't trust you government, so many senior lawyers have pointed out the gaping holes in this and yet you press on - it doesn't seem to be in good faith but designed around a particular, authoritarian, agenda'.

Imagine if Russia was doing this - attempting to criminalise conversations with definitions in law so wide that anything could be 'abuse' in a context where many, many people have already claimed normal human expression is 'abuse' (e.g. normal pronouns). Amnesty would be up in arms! But not a peep.

I'm going to engage with the consultation but from the behaviour of the Parliamentary Committee, and from other Committees in the past, I'm not convinced the Govt are willing to properly interrogate this legislation because they are so politically committed to it.

My problem with my response is I want to say 'I don't trust you government, so many senior lawyers have pointed out the gaping holes in this and yet you press on - it doesn't seem to be in good faith but designed around a particular, authoritarian, agenda'.

Hear hear!

I essentially said this in my response by saying 'although the government has given 'assurances' that parents won't be affected, etc, there is nothing in the drafting of the Bill that allows parents to be treated any differently to anyone else. There is no exception or carve out. The draft does not do what they are telling us it will do.

We see you, politicians 👀

Thank you @DennisNoelKavanaghOffTwitter. It's been a relief to listen to your clear analysis of this grim bill along with so many clear answers to MPs.

Fully agree that this is so important to respond to.

I've just done my response. You have to give your last name and email address, but can then at the end ask for your response to be anonymous.

I used the Sex Matters link to help formulate answers to three questions and then referred to the actual questions to make sure I'd understood. Went with brief and honest - as nice as it would be to wail and gnash my teeth!

Thanks to those who have put the yards in on this one. OP, I found your interview with Tanya de Grunwald really helpful. The way Tanya talked about her worry for young people, ending up unable to get a job and climb out of the trans trap, was very moving and scarily easy to see happening.

Thanks everyone. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for this @Blessings25 just quoting you here for all the links. Thanks for the work you are putting in on this.

Great work.

Has a similar law been passed elsewhere and what were the consequences?

Bumping again so no one misses out by missing the deadline

Done! And bump! It's more easily done than consultation on other legislation, you just need to write your point of view and upload a file, in my case as a parent, but could be from an employer, a teacher, a therapist, a service provider.

The Free Speech Union also has a link to help with completing a response to the consultation:

https://stoptheconversiontherapyban.uk/

For anyone who for anyone reason might not be able to manage the consultation, but who wishes to submit a short opinion of objection, you can do it via email.

Email: [email protected]

Subject heading: FAO the Recipient: Joint Committee on the Conversion Practices Bill

Content: Over to you. You can make any point(s) you like. I'm choosing to focus on the importance of continuing the freedom to have loving, honest and productive family conversations. And not bringing in self-ID including for children by the back door.

You can also send a copy of your email to your MP if you want to.

Just to note that some PPs have found the FSU link problematic (heavy use of ai to change what you’ve written, apparently). I haven’t used so can’t comment directly, but wanted to flag.

Sex Matters have some suggestions about how to reply here, and they’re pretty straightforward:

https://sex-matters.org/take-action/submit-evidence-to-the-conversion-practices-bill-committee/

Thanks @DennisNoelKavanaghOffTwitter I used the "Sex Matters" suggestions and headings.

Bumping the submission link again as the deadline is Monday. Prepare your doument and then scroll down endlessly to find the Start Submission button at the bottom.
https://committees.parliament.uk/submission/4010/#/evidence/4010/call-for-evidence

Thank you all for the reminder to contribute to the consultation as it geed me up to do mine this afternoon.

I found the Sex Matters tips very helpful for getting started.

Although my MP is Lib Dem I will now be forwarding my submission to him to make sure he knows how his constituents feel.

Could those who have done the submission give an idea of how long it took, just so I can put aside some time to do it? Thanks.