U.K. Equalities Minister Olivia Bailey has affirmed that the government’s proposed Conversion Practices bill will not exempt conversations with parents about gender identity or sexuality – and that the consequences for violating the law could be dire.
After successive governments – both Conservative and Labour – promised to ban so-called “conversion therapy,” the Labour government is moving to make good on the commitment. LGBT groups have been thrilled at the expansive approach the government appears to be taking. “Conversion practices are abuse, and the government will deliver the manifesto commitment to bring forward a trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices,” the government’s addendum stated.
In June, the government published their draft Conversion Practices Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny, including the criminalization of “abusive” practices causing “serious harm,” unlimited fines and up to five years in prison for those found violating the law, and broad applicability, including not just therapists but also parents and religious leaders. The exemption for health care and “non-abusive” conversations have not quelled concerns.
Bailey has made it crystal clear that there would be no carve-out for parents. In a conversation with The House magazine, Bailey was asked about the concerns expressed by both religious Britons and “gender-critical campaigners” about the bill deliberately undermining parental autonomy.
Many parents disagree, of course, with the fundamental premise of the bill – that children can be born in the wrong body or change their sex.
“This is about abuse; it is about a very specific form of abuse,” Bailey stated. “It is not about policing opinions, it is not about policing how parents parent, and it is for the courts to determine, not politicians, but – rightly – for the courts to determine what meets that threshold of abuse.”
Again, of course it is about “policing opinions.” If parents do not believe a child can be born in the wrong body or can change their sex through social transitioning, drugs, or surgeries, they are at odds with the ideological framework of the government’s bill.
When Bailey was asked whether parents could be imprisoned under the Conversion Practices Bill, she was vague. “I think that anybody committing abuse, no matter where you find it, no matter in what walk of life – there are not carve-outs for abuse by parents in any other legal environment,” she said. “So I think it is completely right that we just say very clearly in this legislation: We want to stop abuse, we want to stop abuse wherever it happens. Full stop. End of story.”
However, the legislation “defines a conversion practice as ‘any conduct’ carried out with the intention of causing another person to have or not to have, or to believe they have or do not have, a particular sexuality or transgender identity.” It also does not merely include conversations that are “violent or threatening” or “controlling or coercive,” but even pressure that could be vaguely termed as “psychological or emotional” or even “economic.”
“The Government claims its bill targets abuse, but it’s now clear that parents are going to find themselves having to answer to police officers and the courts for conversations with their children,” stated Simon Calvert of The Christian Institute. “It will be easy to allege that a parent who doesn’t go along with a child’s wish to ‘transition’ and does their best to keep them away from the influence of trans activists could be accused of using emotional or financial pressure to ‘stop them being trans.’”
As Christian Action Research & Education (CARE) put it: “Someone hearing a sermon in a church on human sexuality which they disagreed with could cause them distress and therefore come under the terms of this proposed bill. Parents who talk to their children about gender or sexuality, and who do not agree with decisions they have taken, could also be liable for prosecution.”
Non-Christian groups agree. “We fear that this open-ended and subjective definition will lead to parents, teachers, therapists, youth workers, pastoral leaders and others being investigated by the police and possibly submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service for assessment and prosecution, and also being vulnerable to private prosecution,” concluded Sex Matters, a gender-critical feminist group.