Banning conversion practices

We campaign for a ban on therapies, services, and other practices that have a predetermined purpose to change, deny, or suppress an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity because of prejudiced assumptions that a particular sexual orientation or gender identity is better than any others. We do not seek to ban appropriately informed and ethical medical or psychological services that are essential for people in exploring and coming to terms with who they are – whether or not an individual subsequently identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

In 2018 the then-Conservative government first announced plans to introduce a legislative conversion practices ban in England and Wales. This was followed by nearly five years of inaction until it was finally announced, in 2023, that a draft Bill would be published ‘shortly’. But this in turn still hasn’t happened. In the King’s Speech following the 2024 general election, the new Labour Government committed to publishing a Bill to ban LGBT conversion practices. It has yet to do so. In the meantime, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has voted in favour of a resolution calling on member states to introduce a legislative ban on conversion practices.

Bans are also needed in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Channel Islands. The Isle of Man has led the way, having banned conversion practices in 2024.

In depth

What are conversion practices?

Conversion practices – also known as ‘conversion therapies’ – are discredited and harmful, usually rooted in false and pseudoscientific or religious beliefs about what causes people to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The UK Government Equalities Office defines so-called ‘conversion therapies’ as ‘techniques intended to change someone’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity’. They aim to stop a person from expressing their sexual orientation or gender identity (e.g. by persuading them to change or deny their sexual orientation, be celibate, or suppress their gender identity or expression).

They often happen in secret in closed-off religious communities, but evidence shows that it leads to lasting damage for the people subjected to these ‘treatments’. It can result in lasting mental scars, self-harm, and even suicide. Victims are often young and vulnerable, and are more likely to face abuse from their families or communities because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Conversion practices can take many forms, ranging from pseudo-psychological treatments and ‘aversion therapies’ in healthcare and medical settings to practices that are religiously based, such as ‘healing prayer’ or exorcisms. At its most extreme, this can also involve forced marriage and so-called ‘corrective rape’.

Are conversion practices a big problem?

In 2018 the UK Government’s National LGBT Survey of 108,000 LGBT people in Britain found that:

• 7% of respondents had undergone or been offered ‘conversion therapy’.
• 13% of trans respondents had undergone or been offered ‘conversion therapy’ to stop them from being trans
• Of the 7%, most said religious groups had conducted it, and
• 19% said it had been conducted by healthcare providers or medical professionals.

Conversion practices remain an ongoing problem. The UK Government’s survey found a consistent pattern, in terms of the proportions of respondents who had undergone or been offered ‘conversion therapy’ amongst all of those aged 16-64, including 8% of 16-17 year olds and 7% of 18-34 year olds. This is not a problem that only affects an older generation. It continues to harm young LGBT people today. In 2025 Matthew Draper became the first person in the UK to receive compensation for harm caused by conversion practices. An out-of-court settlement was reached after Barnardo’s children’s charity investigated and upheld Draper’s safeguarding complaint against St Thomas Philadelphia church in 2023. Having joined in 2014, Draper was subjected to intense prayer sessions and an exorcism aimed at casting out the ‘demons’ they said were causing his homosexuality.

Further, an investigation by Amnesty International UK, published in 2025, analysed the finances of 12 groups promoting so-called ‘conversion therapy’ aimed at changing or suppressing someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. They found that the spending of four of these organisations – all Christian charities – had surged by 165% between 2019 and 2023, amounting to nearly £2 million spent. This offers concrete evidence that conversion practices remain an acute and growing problem in the UK today, some seven years on since the UK Government first pledged to ban the practice in 2018.

Despite this, conversion practices remain legal in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, and Guernsey. The sole exception for the UK and the Crown Dependencies is the Isle of Man. Section 88 of the Sexual Offences and Obscene Publications Act 2021 criminalised ‘conversion therapy’ when it came into force in 2024. As it stands, groups offering conversion practices such as the Christian-run Core Issues Trust continue to operate in the UK freely. It is a Northern Ireland-registered charity, which entitles it to certain tax exemptions.

Would this outlaw legitimate therapy or support from religious groups?

We campaign for a ban on therapies, services and other practices that have a predetermined purpose to change, deny, or suppress an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity because of prejudiced assumptions that a particular sexual orientation or gender identity is better than any others. We do not seek to ban appropriately informed and ethical medical or psychological services that are essential for people in exploring and coming to terms with their identities – whether or not an individual subsequently comes to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

To this end, we collaborate with professional bodies and allied organisations so that any forthcoming legislation banning conversion practices protects evidence-based, ethical therapeutic and medical services delivered by qualified psychotherapists and other relevant professionals.

Human rights treaties define freedom of religion or belief by saying that ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief’ but also that ‘Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.’

It is therefore definitional to freedom of religion or belief that it may be limited where it causes harm. Conversion practices are harmful. When people are experiencing such extreme distress over their sexual orientation or gender identity, they should be met with person-centred and therapeutically well-grounded support. They should not face coercive, medically worthless practices that seek to push them in a particular predetermined direction.

It is because a ban on conversion practices would prevent harms while still allowing legitimate freedom of religion or belief that the Church of England supports a ban. It says conversion practices have ‘no place in the modern world’.

What we’re doing

LGBT Humanists is a volunteer-led section of Humanists UK. Together, LGBT Humanists and Humanists UK campaign for a legislative ban on conversion practices. We are active members of the Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition, which is focused on England and Wales.

In 2024, we welcomed the new Labour Government’s commitment in the King’s Speech that it would produce a draft Bill to ban conversion practices. In July 2025, we raised our concerns that, in the face of new evidence showing that conversion practices remain a growing problem in the UK, the promised draft Bill has not yet been seen.

In 2024, we welcomed a symbolic motion to ban conversion practices in Northern Ireland. We work actively with the Rainbow Project to that end.

In 2024 LGBT+ Humanists submitted evidence on conversion practices following an informal briefing with the UN Human Rights Committee where they requested further details on the current status of a conversion therapy ban in its review of the UK’s human rights record. We welcomed the Committee’s Concluding Observations which called on the UK to prohibit conversion practices, raising specific concerns about religious conversion practices in Northern Ireland.

We are signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK, which commits signatories to work against conversion practices even in the absence of a ban. Other signatories include NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, various royal colleges, and medical charities.

We have also met repeatedly with Government ministers and officials at the Office for Equality and Opportunity to ask for the ban to be brought into force.

In Scotland, our sister charity Humanist Society Scotland leads on efforts to end conversion practices.

Appendix: Past work on this issue

• We supported our patron Baroness Burt of Solihull’s (Liberal Democrat) Private Member’s Bill, introduced to the House of Lords in 2023. We also supported a second Private Member’s Bill introduced to the House of Commons by Alicia Kearns MP (Conservative) on behalf of then All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group member Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP (Labour). Both Bills fell at the 2024 general election.
• In 2023, we joined other campaigners outside the Houses of Parliament to protest the UK Government’s ongoing delays to the publication of a draft Bill on banning conversion therapy.
• Also that year, we raised our concerns at the UN Human Rights Council with interventions about religious harms caused to LGBT people, including conversion practices, and the use of forced marriage as a means of conversion. These were the latest of several interventions we have delivered to the Human Rights Council on conversion practices. We also called on the UK and other states to legislate for a ban in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.
• In 2022, LGBT Humanists called for the UK Government to strengthen proposals to ban conversion practices in England and Wales in response to a consultation by the Government Equalities Office.
• In 2020, we supported efforts in the House of Keys (the Isle of Man’s Parliament) to ban conversion practices on the Isle of Man. In 2024 it became the first part of the UK and Crown Dependencies to ban the practice.
• In 2018, we worked with the Ozanne Foundation to produce the Faith and Sexuality Survey investigating the harms of conversion practices for young people in religious settings.
• Also in 2018, we identified an upcoming propaganda film from the Core Issues Trust that would be airing at Vue in Leicester Square, a major UK commercial cinema. We briefed journalists on the event and used the ensuing media furore to promote our message that the practice deserves to be banned outright in UK criminal law.
• In 2016, we spotlighted issues with conversion therapy in British schools through our Faith Schoolers Anonymous whistleblowing platform. We highlighted ‘gay exorcisms’ associated with a private Accelerated Christian Education school, emphasising shortcomings in relation to children’s rights and child protection standards in British schools.