Kemi’s warning over an ‘epidemic’ of gay children being told they are trans
BRITAIN is in the grip of an ‘epidemic’ of gay children who are being convinced they are transgender instead, the women and equalities minister has warned.
Describing the phenomenon as a ‘new form of conversion therapy’, Kemi Badenoch told MPs that many of these young people are being ‘exploited’ and later come to regret their ‘irreversible decisions’.
In a barnstorming performance in the Commons yesterday, the minister also hit out at mixed-sex sports, saying boys are using it as an ‘opportunity to bully’ girls.
She also attacked hospitals for removing the word mother from paperwork, saying it was ‘excluding’ rather than inclusive, and warned of the ‘chilling effect’ where anyone who stands up for women’s rights or criticises gender ideology is branded a bigot or transphobic.
Her comments come amid an ongoing row in Parliament over whether or not the Government should outlaw so-called conversion practices.
Ten Tories are supporting a Labour MP’s Private Members’ Bill that would make it illegal to attempt to change someone’s sexuality or gender identity.
But ministers have still not published a long-promised draft law amid fears it could criminalise parents, teachers and doctors simply for talking to children who are questioning their gender identity.
Mrs Badenoch told MPs how she had met Keira Bell, a lesbian who started taking puberty blockers when she was 16 but later ‘de-transitioned’ and sued the NHS trust that runs the controversial Tavistock gender clinic for children.
She said: ‘Girls like Keira Bell who were rushed on to puberty blockers by the NHS and had a double mastectomy, now regret the irreversible damage done to them. I believe this is a new form of conversion therapy.
‘ We are seeing, I would say, almost an epidemic of young gay children being told that they are trans and being put on a medical pathway for irreversible decisions and they are regretting it.
‘I’m making sure that young people do not find themselves sterilised because they are being exploited by people who do not understand what these issues are.’
Mrs Badenoch confirmed her commitment to publishing draft legislation on banning conversion therapy, but said the issue had ‘developed’ since the Tories first pledged to outlaw the practice under ex-PM Theresa May.
She told MPs: ‘Now the threat to many young gay people is not conversion relating to their sexuality, but conversion relating to gender identity.’ The debate was prompted by Mrs Badenoch announcing an update to the list of countries from which the UK accepts Gender Recognition Certificates, which state someone has legally changed sex.
She said some nations no longer have the same ‘rigorous systems’ as we do, and to keep them on the register would ‘inadvertently allow self-ID’ for anyone who obtained a certificate from one of these countries then moved to the UK.
It came as Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was warned that contentious sex education teaching is driving children to question their gender.
Appearing before the Commons education committee, she was told by Nick Fletcher that books aimed at pupils as young as 11 state that sex is ‘usually decided at birth’ and it is a ‘ myth’ that humans are divided into men and women. The Tory MP said: ‘We must say no to this in our schools.’
Mr Fletcher also urged Mrs Keegan to bring in a total ban on ‘social transitioning’ in schools – where pupils adopt the names, pronouns and uniforms of the opposite sex – in order to stop children going down the path of puberty blockers and surgery.
Mrs Keegan claimed that such ‘medical interventions’ are not available for under-18s, but admitted her department’s long-awaited ‘gender questioning guidance’ would not go as far as banning social transitioning outright.
‘We want to ensure that this guidance is helpful to schools, that ensures that this is taken very seriously,’ she added.
‘New conversion therapy’