SNP told to row back on plan to stop conversion therapy
A BAN on conversion therapy is the wrong law to push during an election year, Scottish National Party insiders have claimed amid a growing backlash to the plans.
Nationalists fear that the controversial plans, which could see parents jailed for up to seven years if they try to stop their child living as a member of the opposite sex, will see the SNP haemorrhage more support among voters.
The plans, which have been strongly backed by the SNP’S Scottish Green coalition partners, come after the damaging row on Nicola Sturgeon’s gender self-id law, which was blocked last year by the British Government. The latest plan has also been compared to the SNP’S infamous “named person” scheme, which would have seen every child assigned a state guardian. Ministers were forced to abandon that law after it was ruled an unlawful intrusion into privacy and family life in 2016. One SNP source raised fears that the latest plans “look like self-id on steroids”.
Another Holyrood backbencher questioned the timing of unveiling the proposals, which have led to claims that SNP ministers are meddling in family life and eroding freedom of speech.
The unnamed SNP MSP said: “I am surprised that this legislation is still being progressed given this is a general election year and people’s focus will be on what is most important to them such as energy costs, the cost of living crisis and jobs.
“I am keeping an open mind until I see more detail. But it strikes me that this legislation will be extraordinarily complex. It’s not yet even clear what a definition of conversion therapy is in the context of gender identity related to biological sex.”
Launching a consultation this week, Emma Roddick, the SNP’S equalities minister, insisted that a tough ban was needed to end “damaging and destructive” attempts to suppress Scots’ gender identity or sexual orientation. The plans could see parents reported to police for refusing to let their children to dress as a member of the opposite sex or declining to use their new names or pronouns.
Responding to the consultation, published on Tuesday, the SNP’S Fergus Ewing, a former Scottish cabinet minister, said: “Politicians interfere with family life and parental rights at their peril.”
Blair Anderson, a Green councillor who has been a leading campaigner for a ban, dismissed fears on the impact of the law on parental rights. He told The
National: “It’s nonsense. There’s plenty of law out there that regulates how parents can raise their children.”