Transgender conversion therapy ban: Love us don’t hate us, Sheffield City Hall rally told

Transgender campaigers packed Barker’s Pool today for a rally urging the Government to extend its proposed ban on conversion therapy, which as things stand would only apply to gay and lesbian conversion, and not the transgender community.

Campaigners unfurled a giant banner carrying the message ‘Trans Power’ as a series of speakers addressed the crowd from the steps of City Hall.

Sheffield trans campaigner Vicky Laylor, aged 45, said she was born into an evangelical Christian family.

She said: “Had I come out in my youth, in the 80s, in the 90s, I would have been most likely subject to this conversion therapy, and conversion therapy would have taken place with intense prayer and psychological manipulation to tell me that people like me are wrong.

"The media and the Government make it look like all of a sudden everyone is coming out. We are one per cent of the population. One per cent.

‘We not a threat to society’

"How is that everyone coming out? But more people are coming out because they felt safe about coming out where they didn’t in previous decades like the 70s and 80s. This needs to be put across to the general public so that they can understand that we are not a threat to society. We are a blessing to society. Transgender people have existed since ancient times under different names.

"We are nothing new. We have just now recently, in the last decade or so, had the confidence to come out and start living our truths. Nearly 50 per cent of all transgender people who come out attempt suicide. And that’s not attempted suicide because they feel like they’ve made a mistake, that’s attempted suicide because of disownment from families, friends, loss of careers and lack of employment.

"But the Government saying that they are not going to ban conversion therapy, for we transgender people, it is giving the bigots and potential employers, the freedom to discriminate against us even more.

"Love us, don’t hate us guys. Educate yourself, the information is out there. Stand with us. We just want your love and care and the same respect every other human being is afforded. That’s not too much to ask for.”

Martha Foulds, who hosted the rally, said: “We’re here today to take a stand against conversion practices. and to say that we want a full, and comprehensive ban that includes all LGBT plus people. We want a ban on grounds of sexual orientation and on grounds of gender identity.”

MP Olivia Blake wants converson therapy-free Sheffield

Sheffield Hallam, MP Olivia Blake, said she wanted to see Sheffield a conversion therapy-free city.

She described it as torture, predominantly against young people,

She said: “Conversion therapy is not inoccuous. It is like all other forms of abuse – it is always a harmful practice. The act itself is the harm. Forced marriage, physical and sexual violence, are frequently part of it, whe it isn’t perpetrated by family and community members directly, there have eveny been sexual assaults that have been arranged by third partes."

She told the rally the community was not alone.

The Government announced at the end of March that it plans to ban conversion therapy for gay or bisexual people in England and Wales - but not for transgender people.

It had previously said it would drop plans for the ban entirely.

The announcement on Thursday evening that ministers would explore non-legislative routes to stop the practice was criticised by LGBT groups and MPs.

According to NHS England, conversion therapy tries to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity.

NHS England and other major psychological bodies in the UK have warned all forms of conversion therapy are "unethical and potentially harmful".

The legislation would mean therapy to attempt to change people's sexuality would be outlawed, but those practices carried out to try to change people's gender identity will not.

The announcement that the ban will not cover gender identity has been met with criticism from some MPs and charities.

Some gender critical groups fought for the ban not to include conversion therapy experienced by transgender people.

And Nikki da Costa, a former director of legislative affairs at No 10, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme last month elements of the legislation, particularly relating to gender identity for under 18s and talking therapy, would have had profound consequences for children struggling with gender dysphoria.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme doctors, therapists and parents would be deterred from exploring with a child any feelings of what else may be going on for fear of being told they're trying to change a child's identity", adding that it was "deeply concerning".

‘Gay exorcism’ claim at Sheffield church

Earlier this month it was announced that a review would be carried out over a Sheffield man’s claim he was subjected to a ‘gay exorcism’ at a church in the city.

Matthew Drapper, aged 33, said he suffered long-term trauma after undergoing a form of "exorcism" at Sheffield's St Thomas Philadelphia church, on Penistone Road, eight years ago.

Children’s charity Barnado's says the Diocese of Sheffield has asked it to carry out a “comprehensive and independent investigation” into the claim.

St Thomas church has denied it engaged in any conversion therapy.

Speaking to the The Star in 2020, Mr Drapper said he was repeatedly made to shout a prayer ‘I break the power of homosexuality over me’ and ‘I cancel the agreement with the kingdom of darkness – any associated demons go in the name of Jesus’ until he was struggling to breathe.”

NEWS: Protest in Sheffield over concerns transgender people are not protected by conversion therapy ban