Transgender people will be protected under plans to ban conversion therapy, Truss says

Conversion therapy remains legal despite a pledge to outlaw it three years ago

Liz Truss has said the government will bring forward plans to ban the practice ‘shortly’ (AFP via Getty Images)

Transgender people will be protected under plans to ban conversion therapy, the equalities minister has said amid allegations that the government has created a “hostile environment” for LGBT+ people.

Women and equalities minister Liz Truss said the government wanted to ensure that transgender people were no longer subject to “horrific” conversion therapy and allowed to be “free to live their lives”.

The practice has not yet been outlawed despite a pledge to do three years ago, and three advisers have quit due to concerns that the government’s LGBT+ advisory panel was “not committed to LGBT equality”.

Asked whether the ban would also extend protection to the trans community, Ms Truss told ITV’s Peston: “I’m very clear that we want to make sure that transgender people are free to live their lives and don’t face the type of horrific conversion therapy that currently has been going on here in the UK.”

She has previously said the government will “shortly” put forward legislation to outlaw conversion practices, which treat sexual orientations other than heterosexuality as a choice or mental health problem, and attempt to ‘treat’ people to alter their sexuality or gender identity.

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All major UK therapy professional bodies and the NHS reject the practice, stating that it is dangerous, but some practitioners continue to conduct conversion therapy.

The equalities minister’s comments were welcomed by leading LGBT+ charity Stonewall, which described them on Twitter as a “clear commitment” by Ms Truss to ending the practice.

Stonewall added: “It is vital that the forthcoming legislative ban promised by government protects trans people from conversion therapy in all its forms, including medical, psychiatric, psychological, religious and cultural practices.”

Ms Truss’ comments follow three resignations from the government’s advisory panel this month. Jayne Ozanne, the first to quit, accused ministers of creating a “hostile environment” for LGBT+ people and accused Ms Truss and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch of ignorance.

Ms Ozanne said she had been “been astonished about how ignorant they are” on key issues, also identifying the government’s delay in banning the practice in her reasons for stepping down.

She was followed by James Morton,  a former manager at the Scottish Trans Alliance, who had reportedly been “very concerned for several months” that Ms Truss and her junior ministers were “not committed to LGBT equality”.

Ellen Murray, the executive director of TransgenderNI, then went on to step down, writing on Twitter that the ministers had acted “in appalling faith”.

She tweeted: “There’s precious little patience I have left for the government at this point, but with what remains: get your act together. Use the panel for what it was intended and actually prohibit conversion therapy. Stop deporting LGBT refugees. Drop the trans culture war.”

In response to the string of resignations earlier this month, a government spokesperson said that “the government is committed to building a country in which everyone, no matter their sexuality, race or religion, is free to live their lives as they choose” and said it was “working to bring forward plans” to end conversion therapy “shortly”.