Sheffield councillors oppose use of ‘harmful and unethical’ conversion therapy on LGBTQ+ people

Sheffield City Council’s education children and families policy committee agreed to endorse a position statement on conversion therapy or practice, put together by Sheffield Adult Safeguarding Partnership Board.

A report to the committee said: “Conversion practice is any intervention that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It works towards one goal and that goal is to cure someone from being LGBTQIA+.

“The proposal for a position statement supports the rights and autonomy of allpeople, regardless of sexual identity, and takes a gender-affirming perspective. We are asking our council members and wider organisations to endorse the position statement which condemns this harmful and unethical practice.”

Tim Gollins, council assistant director for access, mental health and wellbeing, said: “We were approached by a young man some time ago, asking for help around conversion therapy.

“He was provided with advice and guidance and was asked to contact the local diocese because the incident occurred in a Church of England venue. The situation was not resolved and an investigation was commissioned with Barnardo’s which is not yet delivered.

Unacceptable

“Whilst that was going on the safeguarding adults board felt that the practice of conversion therapy was so unacceptable that this position statement was needed to support LGBTQ communities and people working in situations where conversion therapy is happening.”

He said the aims are to raise awareness of conversion therapy, encourage LGBTQ+ communities to speak out and to support those communities on the issue.

Mr Gollins said that the document was put together involving a range of professionals and organisations, the diocese of Sheffield and the person referred to who had experience of undergoing conversion therapy.

The harms caused by conversion practice can include anxiety, depression and even suicide, a report to the committee said.

The statement says: “Common reasons given for people being subjected to conversion practices are:

• a perceived incompatibility between someone’s religious values and their sexual orientation or gender identity

• a desire to belong and feel ‘normal’ within a community

• external pressure or coercion by someone’s family members or people from their faith community using unequal power dynamics”.

The committee heard of objections to the position statement raised by consultant psychiatrist Nicky Cowan, who was concerned that the effect of the statement would be to define psychotherapy as conversion therapy, stifle all debate and create a climate of fear.

Dr Cowan said that it also contradicts the findings of the Cass Report into the failings of the Tavistock gender identity clinic, which was closed down.

‘Innocent’

Director of children’s services Andrew Jones said he had received correspondence from Dr Cowan. He said that the position statement is not a policy and its application will be a matter of professional judgement on a case-to-case basis.

He added that it “does not seek to limit such professional judgements and decisions”.

Coun Peter Garbutt said he wanted to refer to Dr Cowan’s objections. He said: “It has come to my attention on several occasions that there is a group of people who think that psychotherapy and other talking therapies represent conversion practice and I would like this committee to recognise that they are not aimed at changing somebody’s sexuality, they are aimed at helping young people discover their sexuality, gender etc and therefore I’d like this committee to specifically exclude that from the definition of conversion practice.”

He said that ‘gender affirming perspective’ sounds “fairly innocent” but the Cass Report said that there are two methods of treatment to people who present as transgender. One of them is to affirm the gender the person identifies with, other is a ‘wait and see’ approach.

He said the Tavistock affirmed people’s gender and they almost exclusively identified as transgender but then later many decided to detransition, sometimes after they had undergone drug treatment and possibly gender reassignment surgery.

He said that under a ‘wait and see’ approach, about 80 per cent of people presenting as transgender later decided they were lesbian or gay or made other choices.

Consequences

Assistant head of legal services Sarah Bennett pointed out that it was someone else’s document, so the options were to accept it or not as it could not be reworded.

Councillors stressed they did not want the document to have unintended consequences and recognised there might be differences in approach to issues involving children and young people, rather than adults.

Coun Mary Lea said: “We all agree that conversion therapy to achieve a cure is not a route anybody would recommend. None of us are experts.” She said people should be able to get therapy or counselling to support them.

Coun Brian Holmshaw said that conversion therapy should be banned. He added: “I think we need to provide support for the rights and autonomy of people, regardless of their sexual identity, and we need to condemn this harmful and unethical practice.”

He said he was “more than happy to endorse the adoption of this position”.

Committee chair Coun Dawn Dale said that the committee should accept the document as the start of an ongoing learning journey on the issue.

All committee members agreed to endorse the document apart from Coun Garbutt, who said he could not support it as it included the wording he was worried about.

The issue will be discussed again at the council’s strategy and resources committee on March 15.

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