Alicia Kearns MP Speaking in the Westminster Hall Debate on LGBTQ+ Banning Conversion Therapy love is not conditional you do not need to change, love is not a pathology and it damn well does not need treating.
When I was elected I would be a voice for those others seek to silence and I am here today to do exactly that.
The need for this ban is quite simple, victims of conversion therapy have no legal recourse to justice and without a legislative ban lives are being destroyed.
I submitted to the minister last year a proposed legislative framework backed by over 15 LGBQ+ advocacy groups as well as 10 representatives of all major faith groups in the UK.
It sets out a framework that allows prosecutions that would stop this heinous practice.
Enable statuary bodies to be able to give victims support and protection identify serial perpetrators, stop the advertising of this fraudulent quackery and to protect potential victims and prevent them from being taken abroad.
It is only through legislation that will provide the protection these communities need and deserve.
I thank the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary for their support for a ban.
I want to concentrate on those today opposing the legislation.
Firstly to the idea that people can consent to this so called therapy, parliament has long recognised that people can not consent to bodily harm and torture and conversion therapy is that.
Victims of conversion therapy bare mental and physical scars for life, for that reason consent can not be freely given.
Secondly, somehow a ban infringes on practice of religion, it does not.
Religious liberty is fundamental and so to is the liberty to live your life free from identity based violence and abuse and we must protect the conversations between religious leaders and a member of their flock. Because this is not a fight between faith and unbelief, but rather protecting the freedoms of the LGBT+ community and stopping those who abuse their authority.
We must protect people from those who carry out practices that would never be accepted by any qualified mental health professionals and for that reason every representative from every major faith group have backed a ban including the Church of England.
The legislation I propose does not prevent individuals seeking guidance from faith leaders.
Thirdly they argue a ban wont end the practice and the worse forms of conversion therapy are already illegal. You can never eradicate a practice like this but legislation give victims legal recourse. Like FGM we need specific legislation rather than relying on existing GBH laws.
Fourthly they argue that conversion therapy is not happening in our country, or to very few people and it is not that severe. How many lives have to be lost before it is deemed worthy of tackling. In our country people are being forced to eat purifying substances, beaten and whipped, forced to undergo exorcisms, corrective rape, forced into marriages and undergoing genital mutilation.
People on my side of the benches have been threatened with and forced to go through conversion therapy and 2000 people had the courage to tell the government they had been subjected to it, but how many more suffer in silence?
Finally some opponents claim that transgender individuals should be removed from the legislation.
It is quite straightforward to introduce a safeguard for professional accredited individuals who can assist individuals who are considering undergoing a gender transition. Conversion therapy falls disproportionately on this community and any ban that excludes trans people would make legislation self defeating.
Mr Chairman upon my election I came to parliament with one legislative change I wanted to deliver and that was a ban on conversion therapy.
I would like to particularly pay tribute to the campaigning that took place before I came to this place by the right honorable member for Pudsey and the Right Honourable member for Finchley and Golders Green and all those LGBT groups and survivors who have worked so hard. To my fellow MP's I say as legislators we have a duty to protect the venerable and deliver a ban and to the survivors of conversion therapy and all those hurting and to all those made to feel ashamed I say today love is not conditional you do not need to change, love is not a pathology and it damn well does not need treating.
