It is a volte-face which definitely does not pass. At the beginning of April, the Johnson government announced that it was abandoning the ban, in England and Wales, on the very controversial conversion therapies for transgender people, contrary to a commitment by the Conservative Party dating from 2018 (in France, they have been penalized since January).
To believe the “National LGBT Survey” studycarried out by the government on a sample of 108,000 LGBT people in the United Kingdom and published in July 2018, around 5% of them had been offered by religious organizations or health professionals this type of coercive therapy aimed at to ” to correct “ patients’ sexual orientations or gender identity. And 2% had actually followed these pseudomedical treatments, based on fasting, meditation, or even hormone injections.
“Parents must be involved in their children’s decisions regarding irreversible treatments. »Boris Johnson, Prime Minister
Since then, the mobilization of associations for the protection of LGBT rights has not weakened: thousands of activists and sympathizers protested in front of 10 Downing Street on April 10, hundreds of people gathered in Manchester, Brighton or Plymouth on April 16. April, demonstrations are also planned in Oxford and then in Liverpool at the end of April. Put online at the beginning of April, a petition demanding that the government reverse its decision reached 135,000 signatures in a few days, and should be the subject of a debate in Parliament in Westminster.
To justify his decision, Boris Johnson invoked “complexities and sensitivities” related to gender issues: “Parents must be involved in their children’s decisions regarding irreversible treatments. » Downing Street is reportedly concerned that the ban on conversion therapy, which involves legalization, will deter doctors, therapists or some parents from having frank discussions with people prone to gender dysphoria (the dissonance between the assigned sex and the one to which the person feels they belong).
1/ I’m bitterly disappointed at the Government’s decision not to include gender identity in the ban on conversion t… https://t.co/1RmWpkjLIu
“I am bitterly disappointed by this decision,” reacted Conservative MP Jamie Wallis – the first openly transgender elected to Westminster (he revealed it in March). The government was even forced to cancel its first international conference on LGBT rights, scheduled for June, after too many transgender rights associations had given up participating. Quoted by Guardian, Jayne Ozannean eminent Anglican evangelist, known for her commitment against conversion therapy, believes that the government’s renunciation “is by far the biggest betrayal to the LGBT community in years. (…) It will leave many, many LGBT people completely vulnerable to degrading treatment.”
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