Conversion therapy ban bill reading devolves into trans debate

The UK’s House of Lords debated a landmark bill aiming to ban conversion therapy on Friday. The bill has been six years and four prime ministers in the making, but peers seem no closer to agreeing on it. The governments of Theresa May and Boris Johnson both agreed that coercive efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity should be outlawed, but plans to legislate have foundered since then amid controversy over the Tavistock clinic and ministerial interventions including one from Kemi Badenoch – who as women and equalities minister called automatically affirming trans identities “a new form of conversion therapy”. She cited the case of Keira Bell, who medically transitioned as a young person but later regretted and detransitioned. Bell’s case has become a rallying cry for many, and was cited multiple times in the House of Lords. Supporters of the bill raised in response the case of Brianna Ghey as an example of deeply entrenched scepticism towards gender identity. This bill, which started life as a popular initiative to protect vulnerable people, seems to have morphed into another casualty of political polarisation.