Protect and Teach CIC has added its support to an open letter coordinated by LGB Alliance calling on the Government to reject the Draft Conversion Practices Bill.
The letter brings together parents, grandparents, carers and parenting organisations concerned about the possible consequences of the proposed legislation for children, families and professionals working with young people.
Protect and Teach unequivocally opposes violence, coercion, humiliation, threats, sexual abuse and other genuinely abusive conduct directed at a person because of their sexual orientation. Such behaviour is wrong. Much of it is already capable of being prosecuted or otherwise addressed through existing criminal law, safeguarding law and professional regulation.
The Draft Bill would also extend its provisions to what it describes as “transgender identity”. Protect and Teach does not adopt that contested concept as a statement of fact; we use the term only when quoting or describing the proposed legislation.
Our opposition to the Draft Conversion Practices Bill does not arise from indifference to abuse. It arises from concern that Parliament is being asked to create serious new criminal and civil powers without sufficiently clear evidence that the proposed framework is necessary, precisely defined and capable of operating without damaging legitimate safeguarding relationships.
Read the LGB Alliance announcement on X.
Why this matters for children and parents
Children and adolescents may experience uncertainty or distress concerning their bodies, sex, sexuality, relationships or who they may grow up to be. Some will eventually understand themselves to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. Others may reach different conclusions as they mature.
Responsible parenting must leave room for children to talk, question, change their minds and explore difficult feelings without pressure towards any predetermined outcome.
Parents also retain important responsibilities for their children’s welfare. They must be able to ask questions, consider alternative explanations for distress, seek appropriate professional advice and make decisions according to the child’s age, maturity and circumstances.
The concern is not simply whether an ordinary conversation would ultimately result in a criminal conviction. The concern is whether the Bill’s terminology and structure could cause parents, teachers, counsellors and other trusted adults to fear that cautious or exploratory discussions might prompt an allegation, police investigation, regulatory complaint or application for a civil protection order.
A law can produce a chilling effect even where the threshold for conviction is relatively high.
Protecting children who may grow up to be lesbian, gay and bisexual
Protect and Teach is particularly concerned that children who do not conform to stereotypes associated with their sex must not be pushed towards any predetermined interpretation of their personality, behaviour or distress.
Some gender-nonconforming children will grow up to be lesbian, gay or bisexual.
Safeguarding must therefore protect children from pressure in every direction. It must protect them from attempts to force a particular sexual orientation, but it must also preserve careful exploration and guard against prematurely interpreting non-conformity or same-sex attraction as evidence of a different identity.
Legislation should not make that essential exploratory work more difficult.
Readers can view the:
- LGB Alliance Conversion Practices
- LGB Alliance Open Letter.pdf
- and the Government’s Draft Conversion Practices Bill, Explanatory Notes and Impact Assessment.
Our position
Protect and Teach has therefore supported the open letter asking the Government to reject the Draft Conversion Practices Bill.
We recognise that not every concern expressed about the Bill will necessarily result in prosecution and that the Government has attempted to construct thresholds around the proposed criminal offence. Nevertheless, the remaining problems of evidence, legal certainty, proportionality, parental responsibility and potential chilling effects are too serious to dismiss.
Abuse should be prevented and punished. But criminal legislation must identify with precision what is prohibited, demonstrate why existing powers are inadequate and provide confidence that the proposed solution will improve protection without damaging lawful parenting, safeguarding and therapeutic practice.
In our assessment, the Draft Conversion Practices Bill does not presently meet that standard.