The first transgender MP said he is “bitterly disappointed” that people who identify as a different gender to the one they are born into will be excluded from plans to ban conversation therapy.
Jamie Wallis, Conservative MP for Bridgend, last week came out as trans in a highly personal statement.
Taking on Twitter on Monday, the 37-year-old rallied against ministers’ plans to limit a ban on conversion therapy to gay people.
He said it was “wrong to exclude protections for a whole group of people from a practice described as ‘abhorrent’”.
The backbencher argued that it would be a “broken promise” to allow conversion therapy to be banned, but for it not to apply to trans people.
The outcome of a double U-turn by the Prime Minister last week, in which he appeared to flip-flop on whether to legislate against conversion therapy, has reportedly seen No 10 settle on outlawing “only gay conversion therapy, not trans”.
When announcing the initial consultation into the conversion therapy ban, the UK Government declared: “The proposed protections are universal: an attempt to change a person from being attracted to the same-sex to being attracted to the opposite-sex, or from not being transgender to being transgender, will be treated in the same way as the reverse scenario.
“They therefore protect everyone.”
LGBT and religious leaders, including former archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, have put pressure on Boris Johnson to include trans people in a ban on conversion therapy.
In a series of tweets, Mr Wallis said: “I’m bitterly disappointed at the Government’s decision not to include gender identity in the ban on conversion therapy.
“Many have asked what my thoughts are. I’ve always believed that this debate attracts unnecessary hysteria and toxicity, and meaningful results can only come from meaningful debate. Understandably, concerns need to be looked at and debated, but it is wrong to exclude protections for a whole group of people from a practice described as ‘abhorrent’.
“I hope the announcement that a separate piece of work will now be done on this issue will be done at speed.
“If the CT (conversion therapy) ban passes through Parliament without any protections for the transgender community, it cannot be described as anything other than a broken promise.”
The Government has said trans people should be “treated with the maximum possible generosity and respect” but that the “complexity of issues requires separate work to further consider transgender conversation therapy”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel