The Out Crowd - An LGBTQ podcast

🚫 "There's no time to wait": Why Mind is demanding that the government bans 'conversion therapy' for all members of the LGBTQ community now

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Episode notes

Five years ago, the government, under the premiership of Theresa May, pledged to ban conversion therapy - the insidious and psychologically damaging practice of trying to suppress a person’s sexuality or gender identity.

Half a decade later, the LGBTQ community is still waiting.

Back in 2021, the then-minister for women and equalities Liz Truss reiterated that the government would ban conversion therapy in England and Wales.

She wrote: “There is no justification for these coercive and abhorrent practices and the evidence is clear that it does not work: it does not change a person from being LGBT and can cause long lasting damage to those who go through it. We are committed to building a society in which conversion therapy no longer takes place.”

Well, that commitment has been wavering from the government. The conversion therapy ban was scrapped at one point, and then reinstated but excluding the trans community, and then another U-turn saying that all forms of conversion therapy would be banned.

Again, we are still waiting. On this episode of The Out Crowd, the LGBTQ podcast from Reach, Daniel J. McLaughlin speaks to Gemma Byrne from Mind, the mental health charity, about the dangers of what they call conversion practices - and their demands to the government to protect all members of the LGBTQ community.

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The Out Crowd is a Laudable production for Reach, in partnership with ReachOut. It is presented and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin.

The title music is Sunny Travel by Nico Staf.

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