The UK government has taken a major step towards ending conversion practices, a discredited method of attempting to change a person's sexuality or gender identity, often against their will.
A draft bill to ban these practices has been published, marking a significant move towards making it a crime to carry out abusive conversion practices that cause serious harm, alarm, or distress to the victim.
The draft bill would apply to England and Wales and would introduce an offence of encouraging or assisting an abusive conversion practice performed outside the two countries.
Those found guilty could face imprisonment for up to five years, an unlimited fine, or both.
The publication of a draft bill means it can be consulted upon more widely before it formally begins the Parliamentary process towards becoming a new law, but this also means there will be a longer wait for it to take effect.
The decision was taken because it is a "complex legal area," the government said, adding it hopes to "build a genuine consensus around a ban."
Labour committed to a "trans-inclusive" conversion therapy ban in their 2024 manifesto, which pledged to deliver a full ban on conversion practices while protecting the freedom for people to explore their sexual orientation and gender identity.
The draft bill contains exemptions for legitimate healthcare, allowing for "free and open conversations about sexuality and transgender identity," and sets a "high bar for criminality," with only "acts that are abusive, seeking to change someone's identity, and create real harm to the person" in scope.
The government argues that current legislation covers domestic violence, coercive control, and communications offences, but these leave loopholes that can be exploited by perpetrators of conversion practices.
The publication of the draft bill has been welcomed by Saba Ali, the Chair of the Ban Conversion Practices Coalition, who said it was "a significant and welcome step forward" but also "long overdue."
Ali said that the move belonged to a movement, and that over 80 coalition organisations, countless survivors, clinicians, faith leaders, Parliamentarians, and campaigners had refused to let this be forgotten.
Equalities Minister Olivia Bailey said, "Conversion practices are driven by the false belief that being LGBT+ is shameful and can be forcibly changed. No-one should face abuse just because of who they are."
