A Scottish Conservative MSP has criticised the UK Government for excluding transgender people from the proposed ban on conversion therapy, branding the move as “indefensible”.
Speaking at a PinkNews reception at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Wednesday evening, Jamie Greene MSP for West Scotland hit out at comments made by Boris Johnson towards trans women.
Mr Greene said: “I’m not a member of the UK Government first of all – I want to make that clear – and it’s not my job to defend the indefensible.”
He said the Conservatives had made a “very explicit” commitment to include trans people in the ban, adding: “We made a commitment to the LGBTQ+ community that we would ban conversion therapy. We should fulfil that promise and the Scottish Government should do exactly the same.
“We should do it here, we should do it in Westminster, we should do it in Wales, we should do it in Northern Ireland.”
Jamie Greene MSP
Mr Greene also hit out at the lack of reform to the Gender Recognition Act by the UK government.
He said: “I hope the UK Government reflects on commitments that they’ve made. I think commitments are important to people.”
The MSP is one of the most senior LGBTQ+ Conservatives to speak out against the UK Government’s U-turn on both the reform of the Act and the exclusion of transgender people from the proposed conversion therapy ban.
He added: “I will not fail to hold the Government to account. I don’t think I could look myself in the mirror if I didn’t.”
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