We'll fight for total ban on conversion practices, says new boss of Stonewall

The new head of Stonewall has pledged to fight for a ban on conversion practices that includes "every member of the lesbian, gay, bi and trans community", as he said the progress of government legislation may be exploited by those pursuing global attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.

- Libby Brooks

With a draft bill expected this spring, Simon Blake said: "It's really important that a conversion practices bill covers all practices designed to try to change or correct somebody's sexual or gender identity." Interviewed at length for the first time since he took the post, Blake said the bill was a reset between the government, Stonewall and the wider LGBTQ+ sector, after Labour committed in its manifesto to a "full trans-inclusive ban" on conversion practices.

This follows an increasingly toxic engagement with the previous Tory administration, in which Liz Truss, then equalities minister, urged all government departments to quit the charity's workplace inclusion programme. In addition, plans for a similar conversion practices ban fell apart amid moves to exclude trans people and concerns about a loophole of "informed consent".

Stonewall would have to "really work" around the parliamentary process to ensure initial commitments were not lost, said Blake, who anticipated opponents would downplay the prevalence of conversion practices.

Today the charity releases new research which finds that 17% of LGBTQ+ Britons have experienced physical assault, 10% have been subjected to "exorcism" practices and 12% have suffered so-called "corrective rape" or sexual assault, all in an attempt to change their sexuality or gender identity. While some of these are already illegal, campaigners hope that drawing them together under a blanket ban on conversion practices would strengthen recourse for victims as well as acting as a deterrent.