Wales is taking steps towards a ban on conversion therapy, Welsh Government deputy minister Hannah Blythyn has announced.
Conversion therapy is any form of treatment or psychotherapy which aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or to suppress a person’s gender identity. It is based on an assumption that being lesbian, gay, bi or trans is a mental illness that can be ‘cured’. Already, a number of counselling and psychotherapy bodies, as well as the NHS in England have signed a Memorandum of Understanding saying they will not use it.
At the beginning of April, Boris Johnson did a double u-turn on an LGBT conversion therapy ban in England. Downing Street first announced the Prime Minister had decided against making it illegal to change or suppress someone’s sexuality or gender identity, abandoning a manifesto pledge, but hours later after a backlash from within his own party, he said he would move to ban conversion therapy, but exclude gender dysphoria from the legislation.
