THE Scottish Government has been warned there “can be no more delays” to banning anti-LGBT conversion therapy after Westminster unveiled plans to outlaw the “form of torture”.
The Scottish Greens have said that Holyrood must act after the UK Government announced plans to outlaw practices which aim to turn gay people straight or make trans people align with their sex.
The Scottish Government shelved its plans for a ban in 2024, saying it preferred a UK-wide approach, however the Westminster bill unveiled this week only covers England and Wales.
First Minister John Swinney earlier this year committed to bringing forward a ban in the first year of this Holyrood term.
Kate Nevens, the Scottish Greens’ equalities spokesperson, said: “So-called conversion therapy is a form of torture that has no place in a modern or inclusive Scotland, and yet it continues.
“The Scottish Government has made LGBTQ+ people wait for far too long. They promised a watertight ban five years ago, before going back on it and choosing to outsource the work to Westminster. That clearly hasn’t worked, but the abuse has continued.”
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a UN expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, said in 2020 that conversion practices can cause emotional and physical pain and trauma, equating them to a kind of torture.
He said that they “are rooted in the belief that persons of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity are somehow inferior, either morally, spiritually or physically because of their orientation or identity, and that they must modify that orientation or identity to remedy that inferiority”.
Nevens said that the Scottish Government “already has a strong and comprehensive draft bill that is ready to go and that goes further than the UK government is proposing for England and Wales” and said there should be no further delay to bringing a ban into law.
She added: “Far too many people have had to suffer for far too long. They deserve an apology, but they also deserve an end to their pain.
“The UK approach has failed. There can be no more delays and no more kicking it into the long grass.”
The UK proposals, published in draft form on Thursday, would create new criminal offences of “carrying out abusive conversion practices that cause serious harm, alarm or distress to the victim” or “encouraging or assisting an abusive conversion practice performed outside England and Wales”.
But Nevens said that “human rights campaigners and equality organisations are already raising serious concerns about their limitations and possible loopholes”.
The UK Government’s announcement outlines that the proposed ban would crack down on “explorative conversations and questioning about someone’s identity” and said there would be a “a high threshold for criminality has been included”.
