Campaigns to owe Downing Street’s commitment to outlaw the controversial exercise said “the battle is definitely still going on” and remained confident that No. 10 would either be swayed or defeated in the remaining months. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. their gender. The Equality Bureau is also said to have estimated that if protection measures for trans people were removed from the bill, about 50 Conservative MPs could vote to add it again. Johnson denied his commitment to ban conversion practices to cover all LGBT people last week, but partly backed down in the face of a huge backlash from some of his own lawmakers. A government spokesman blamed “the complexity of the issues and the need for further careful consideration” for the decision to abandon trans conversion practices while doing “separate work”. The answer was soon given by those who pushed for a ban on coercive or torturous practices aimed at preventing someone from reconsidering their gender or sexuality, as they said the complicated work on the subject had begun years ago. They also scoffed at a proposal apparently made by No. 10 earlier this week that a royal commission would be set up to look into the matter, saying it would delay it indefinitely. Crispin Blunt, a Conservative MP and chair of the LGBTQ + global parliamentary rights group, said it was “disappointing that our Prime Minister has not yet fully appreciated the sensitivities and complexities surrounding gender identity as well as sexuality”. Another Tory supporter, Eliot Colburn, said he was “extremely concerned” about the “incredibly misjudged” decision to exclude the protection of trans people from the ban on conversion practices. “Excluding anyone from the scope of the ban sends the wrong message,” he said. “Many other countries and territories have managed to pass these bans, we must do the same. “Fueling the fire and indulging in some kind of cultural war will not benefit anyone.” Amnesty International’s Patrick Corrigan said: “A ban on conversion therapy that excludes trans and non-trans people is not a real ban on conversion therapy. “Human rights cannot be applied selectively.” However, some Conservatives rejoice that Johnson has been encouraged to take a softer approach to the issue, believing that conversion practices are already prohibited by existing laws or would be too difficult to ban so that they end up unjustly targeting religious leaders or health professionals. Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, said on Wednesday that Johnson’s position was correct, adding: “We need to be able to discuss these sensitive issues with mutual tolerance.”
