Disappointing news out of the UK. The government has run out of time to publish draft legislation to ban LGBTQ conversion therapy. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is refusing to say if a ban is still planned so it looks like 5 years of promises have fallen to the wayside. My LGBTQ activist friend & colleague Peter Tatchell stated, "More than five years ago, the Conservative government promised to ban conversion therapy. Since then, it has been reiterated several times but we've had nothing but dither & delay. Earlier this year, draft legislation was pledged by the summer. That target has long passed. Now the government has run out of legislative time. A ban is dead in the water. We've been conned & betrayed." In the USA 27 states have now banned conversion therapy to protect our LGBTQ youth from this deadly practice, whether by legislation, regulations or executive actions. Conversion therapy has been rejected as unnecessary, ineffective & harmful by every major medical & mental health organization in the USA including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association & the American Academy of Pediatrics. According to The Trevor Project 15% those who had reported being subjected to the practice were more than twice the rate of attempting suicide in the past year. We certainly hope that the UK reconsiders the seriousness of this harmful practice & pass the much-needed legislation. For decades Peter Tatchell has unselfishly fought for educating, advocating & lobbying for the elimination of exclusion & discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, race, gender, disability, religion, belief, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, economic, social, cultural or refugee status. Check out his fabulous documentary “Hating Peter Tatchell” on Netflix. Watch Trailer
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