Veteran gay rights campaigner opposes 'conversion therapy' ban on human rights grounds

It comes as a private members bill by Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle seeks to outlaw “practices whose predetermined purpose is to change a person’s sexual orientation or to change a person to or from being transgender” in England and Wales.

Mr Dudgeon – who took the UK to court in the 1980s and won over a ban on homosexuality in Northern Ireland – said: “I share Gay Men's Network's (GMN) concerns about the Lloyd Russell-Moyle's Bill which is before the House of Commons.

“Barrister Dennis Kavanagh of GMN has also written a much longer legal analysis. The Bill in the House of Lords has no merit and was drafted on the back of an envelope.

“My objections to the Commons Bill relate especially to the human rights aspects and potential breaches of the European Convention's Articles on freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

“It is however non-discriminatory in that trans 'conversion practices' would be outlawed in both directions. Historic conversion therapy of a coercive nature would be illegal today even if practised up to the 1970s in Belfast”.

The issue of a conversion therapy ban has rumbled on for a number of years. the UK Government published a consultation on banning conversion therapy in 2020 after lobbying from LGBTQ groups such as Stonewall. However, there have been bitter divisions between groups like Stonewall and gay people who reject their belief that anyone can choose their own gender identity and be legally recognised as that gender.

A ban is also supported by a number of parties in Northern Ireland.

A motion by the Ulster Unionist Party to introduce a ban was passed in 2021. However, no legislation has been forthcoming.

The UK Government has said it would publish a draft bill to prohibit conversion therapy, but that hasn’t happened amid divisions in the Tory party over the potential consequences of the legislation. This is in relation to problems a ban could cause for medical professionals treating children confused about their gender – and the consequences for religious freedom and individual liberty.

Some psychotherapists fear that it could ban anything other than ‘affirmation’ of the gender a child identifies as.

The Labour MP who brought the motion said “I have met with it from all sides, from the Christian Institute to Stonewall, and I’ve listened to them and I believe, generally, there is a way that we can come forward to solve this problem”.