Why did the government U-turn on its trans conversion therapy ban?
2018 survey found trans people twice as likely as gays to be offered interventions
Debates over gender and identity are now among “the most heated in our politics”, said Robert Colvile in The Sunday Times. That’s why “all hell broke loose” last week when the Government indicated it was planning to U-turn on its promise to ban all types of “conversion therapy” – whether aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or their gender identity. It finally settled on a compromise: to outlaw gay therapies, but not trans ones.
Its reasoning is as follows. Imagine two children: the first develops feelings for someone of the same sex, and is dragged by their conservative parents before an “authority figure” to “crush” their inclinations; the second is unhappy in their gender, but their “tolerant” parents still want them to wait before having irreversible medical treatment. The Government is keen to “prevent the first scenario without criminalising the second”. And polls show this is in line with public opinion. Most people support trans adults’ right to identify “as they wish”, but feel changing gender should be a considered process. We may not live in a utopia for LGBT people, but neither the public nor the Government is “viscerally hostile to trans rights”.
In which case, why is the Government willing to let trans people undergo conversion therapies, said Jayne Ozanne in The Guardian. As one who suffered nearly 20 years of “healing prayer” and even exorcisms to purge my attraction to women, I know how harmful such therapy can be. It’s even worse for trans people: the Government’s own 2018 LGBT survey found they’re nearly twice as likely as lesbians and gays to be offered and to undergo interventions; and these interventions, it found, may include beatings, deprivation and verbal abuse.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trans conversion therapy is banned in Brazil, Switzerland and Germany, said Emma Flint on The Independent. Here, however, the Tories regard the desire to transition as they once viewed homosexuality: as a disease that needs to be cured.
But it’s wrong to treat gay rights and trans rights as equivalent, said Lucy Bannerman in The Times. No one in the gay rights movement has sought to redefine “who is gay and who is straight”. By contrast, “extremists in the trans movement”, by prioritising “gender identity” over biological sex, have tried to reclassify “how humans are categorised” in various walks of life. Some charities may see no problem in setting trans-identifying young people on a path of “experimental hormone treatments and lifelong medication”, but it isn’t abusive for professionals to question such practices even if others choose to call such questioning “conversion therapy”. On this difficult issue, “a variety of clinical opinions” should be encouraged, not proscribed.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'The mental gymnastics were breathtaking at times'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
'In every country, the national folklore is partly fakelore'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
'The double standards don't trouble the critics'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
GOP's Mace seeks federal anti-trans bathroom ban
Speed Read Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has introduced legislation to ban transgender people from using federal facilities
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will Donald Trump wreck the Brexit deal?
Today's Big Question President-elect's victory could help UK's reset with the EU, but a free-trade agreement with the US to dodge his threatened tariffs could hinder it
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
How the transgender community is bracing for Trump
The Explainer After a campaign full of bigotry and promises to roll back hard-earned rights, genderqueer people are grappling with an incoming administration prepared to make good on overtly transphobic rhetoric
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published