Teachers and 'conversion therapy'

The government is currently consulting on banning so-called ‘conversion therapy’. More specifically, the question is not whether to ban conversion therapy, but how to ban it. The government proposes that children under 18 years of age should not be able to consent to ‘conversion therapy’, no matter how much they want it. Just what will this mean in practice?

The government was forced to extend the deadline for its consultation last year, from 10 December to Friday 4 February. One of the reasons that the consultation was extended is because the easy read version of the consultation that was first released revealed that teachers would be affected by the proposed ban on conversion therapy. This has not been made clear in the main version of the consultation and the government was embarrassed into withdrawing the easy read version and taking time to put out a revised easy read version. This, combined with threatened legal action by Fair Play for Women on behalf of autistic children claiming that they had not enough time to respond to the consultation, forced the government to extend the deadline.

The government has most likely been taken aback at the strength of opposition to its proposals. Over 2,700 Christian Ministers and Pastoral Workers signed an open letter to Liz Truss, Minister for Women and Equalities, objecting to the proposals and respectfully stating that they would follow God’s law rather than obey the letter of the law of the land if it came to that.

My colleague, Steve Beegoo, Head of Education at Christian Concern, has written an open letter to Nadhim Zahawi, Secretary of State for Education, expressing concerns about the ‘conversion therapy’ proposals on school workers and children. If children cannot consent to ‘conversion therapy’, and exactly what constitutes ‘conversion therapy’ is unclear, then any conversation with a pupil that gently challenges an acquired gender identity or sexuality would risk criminal sanctions. Teachers regularly engage in such pastoral conversations and so are particularly at risk of prosecution. Indeed, from the initial version of the easy read consultation document, it appears that the government intended that teachers should be targeted.

If a ‘conversion therapy’ ban becomes law, teachers, pastoral workers, and others will be very reluctant to talk with children about issues around sexuality or gender identity. This will be the case even when the pupils may desperately want a frank conversation with a trusted adult who they know will not just tell them what they are supposed to. This will only serve to harm such pupils, particularly since good research shows that over 80% of those children who experience gender dysphoria recover from it as they come through puberty, providing that they are not affirmed in any change of gender identity.

There is still a few weeks remaining to respond to the government’s consultation. Christian Concern has provided some helpful guidance for how to respond to the consultation online. It is very important that teachers’ voices are heard and responded to. If you haven’t already responded, do take the time (around 30 mins) to fill out a response yourself. Online responses can be anonymous if you so wish.

The strength of opposition to these proposals could yet see the government back down. Only in September 2020, the UK became the first country in the world to scrap plans for gender self-identification, after there was strong opposition to the government’s proposals. We hope and pray that the government will back down again this time and scrap dangerous proposals to criminalise certain types of private consensual conversations.

Tim Dieppe is Christian Concern’s Head of Public Policy.