Adults who try to persuade children to change their gender will face criminal sanctions under government plans.
From next spring it will be illegal to convince someone to change their sexuality or gender identity, with extra safeguards to protect adolescents.
Government sources suggested that individuals working for organisations such as Mermaids, a charity that offers advice and counselling to children with gender dysphoria, could face criminal sanctions if they were found guilty of encouraging under 18s to change gender.
Under the proposals, medical professionals such as psychiatrists and doctors will escape sanctions. Informal advice sought from family and friends will also not be criminalised. However, all other counselling offered to children under 18 will be outlawed and adults will have to consent to take part in therapy. The laws will be introduced after a consultation.
Although the decision to ban gender identity counselling is controversial, the protections for gay and lesbian people have been welcomed. LGBT+ campaigners have long called for a ban on gay conversion therapy. Under the practice, religious groups try to “cure” gay people through prayer or counselling. In extreme cases individuals have beeen subjected to violence or “corrective rape”. Judges will be asked to hand down longer sentences for such crimes.
The government will also give courts the power to seize the passports of under 18s who are at risk of being taken out of the country. The new Conversion Therapy Protection Orders will work in a similar way to an existing scheme that allows officials to intervene on behalf of children at risk of female genital mutilation or forced marriage.
Liz Truss, the equalities minister, said that LGBT+ people deserved to live their lives free from the threat of harm or abuse. “There should be no place for the abhorrent practice of coercive conversion therapy in our society,” she said.
“I want everyone to be able to love who they want and be themselves. Today’s announcement sets out how we will ban an archaic practice that has no place in modern life.”
The case of Keira Bell, a 24-year-old woman
who began taking puberty blockers as a teenager before later detransitioning, is understood to have influenced Truss’s decision to include gender identity counselling in the ban. Bell met Kemi Badenoch, a junior equalities minister, this year.
Stephanie Davies-Arai, director of Transgender Trend, a group of parents, professionals and academics troubled by the trend to diagnose children as transgender, said that the new laws could threaten legitimate discussions.
She said: “This may have a chilling effect on therapists working with children with gender dysphoria unless there are clear, specific protections built into the bill.” Nancy Kelley, chief executive of Stonewall, welcomed the “huge step forward” on gay conversion therapy but urged the government to go further on prayer and support for victims.
“We also can’t support the proposals for people to ‘consent’ to conversion therapy — a practice that is abusive cannot be consented to,” she said.
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