‘Conversion practices Bill has Stonewall’s fingerprints all over it’

Stonewall has been granted extraordinary access to Government over its plans to ban ‘conversion practices’, opponents of the proposals have warned.

The Daily Telegraph, which recently launched a campaign against the draft Bill, reported that Government officials met privately with the controversial pro-trans charity to discuss the legislation.

In June, when the Bill was published, Stonewall celebrated its “central role” in pushing for a ban and pledged to continue to work hard to ensure that it is “robust”, “effective” and without “loopholes”.

‘Trans activist’s dream’

In October Stephen Kiely, the lobby group’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs, posted on LinkedIn: “Packed this week talking all things banning conversion practices bill in No 10, Department for Education and Parliament.”

Dennis Kavanagh, a barrister in criminal law and the Director of the Gay Men’s Network, described the level of Government access afforded to Stonewall as “extraordinary, particularly in view of their extreme position on gender matters and their poor track record in accurately stating the law”.

Sex Matters Chief Executive Maya Forstater commented: “The draft Conversion Practices Bill is a trans activist’s dream.”

She added: “Stonewall’s access to No 10 and Government departments specifically to discuss conversion practices speaks volumes about whose viewpoints are reflected, and whose concerns are going unheard.”

‘Not What It Says On The Tin’

A Policy Exchange report published last week indicated that attempting to convince a person that they are human, and not a cat, could be illegal under the Government’s draft Bill.

Authors Baroness Kishwer Falkner and Barrister Akua Reindorf KC noted that as the Bill’s definition of ‘gender identity’ includes “neither male nor female”, it could cover “hundreds” of identities including ‘catgender’, where a person feels strongly connected to cats or even believes they are one.

They also warned that activists could use Conversion Practices Protections Orders to “close down the activities of their opponents, whether those are parents exercising ordinary parental control and discipline, gender critical organisations engaging in legitimate political debate and campaigning or religious communities offering pastoral care in good faith”.

Lady Falkner and Reindorf branded the proposals “ideological, authoritarian, unworkable and wholly unsuitable legislation for a democratic and pluralistic society”.