Lawmakers in the U.K. have largely voted against a “conversion therapy” ban that would penalize anyone who attempts to help people seeking freedom from unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion.
The Conversion Therapy Prohibition (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) Bill was scheduled for a second reading on February 9 in the House of Lords.
The bill would make it a crime for a medical practitioner or any caregiver to provide or offer any “therapy” that seeks to change a person’s perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, even if the conversation is consensual.
More specifically, it seeks to declare that individuals questioning their gender identity should not be “cured” of their attraction to the same sex or have their sexual identity “fixed.”
“Parents who do not allow their child to cross-dress would also be criminalised for suppressing their child’s gender identity. The same would apply to parents who continue to refer to their children by their birth name or gender,” explained Christian Concern, a U.K. faith-based legal group.
The organization points out that the proposed law has “no settled definition of ‘conversion therapy'” and would allow the criminality of breaking the law to be “wide open to being stretched in the future.”
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