The conversion therapy bill is a thoroughly bad idea

I was disappointed to learn that Rishi Sunak has reconsidered his opposition to a bill banning conversion therapy. Not because I’m in favour of it, obviously. The baffling thing about Sunak’s change of heart is that conversion therapy, as commonly understood, has been banned in this country for years. As the government’s own briefing on the subject put it in 2021: ‘Our existing criminal law framework means that conversion therapy amounting to offences of physical or sexual violence is already illegal in this country.’

So what is it Sunak wants to outlaw? The bill hasn’t been published, but my fear is it will look a lot like the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act passed in the Australian state of Victoria in 2021. As in the UK, pseudo-scientific ‘treatments’ for homosexuality were already criminal offences in Victoria when the act received royal assent, but the new law went further.