LGBT Ireland Statement
LGBT Ireland is bitterly disappointed by the news that the UK Government is excluding transgender people from legislation to ban conversion therapy despite warnings from the NHS England and major psychological bodies in the UK, against such a move. All recent legislative bans on conversion therapy globally, including Canada, France and New Zealand, have covered both sexual orientation and gender identity.
To abandon transgender people in this way exposes them to the real risk of significant and long-lasting psychological harm because of these out-dated and unscientific practices and flies in the face of empirical evidence which demonstrates the harm such practices cause.
Alan Edge, Campaign Officer for the Ban Conversion Therapy Campaign, run in partnership with LGBT Ireland and The Rainbow Project NI, said, ‘this is an appalling outcome. We share the view of all our partners in Northern Ireland, The Rainbow Project, that a partial ban is no ban at. We recognise the impact that this will have on Trans people UK-wide and in Northern Ireland especially, and we will continue to work closely with our partners in Northern Ireland to mitigate the impacts of this short-sighted decision. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the ban to which the Irish Government has committed will be robust and will leave no-one behind. We will also urge legislators in the south to look closely at the north-south dimension to ensure that measures are in place to prevent people being removed from the jurisdiction for the purposes of conversion practices’.
LGBT Ireland continues to work with a wide range of partners including mental health professional bodies, and LGBTI+ organisations nationwide, to create an Ireland where trans and non-binary people are safe from harmful conversion practices and are valued for who they are.
Coalition partners include:
BeLonG To Youth Services
Gay Project
LINC
TENI
The Rainbow Project