Whitehall is doing the work of activists
It is unusual, to say the least, for a controversial government policy to be effectively disavowed by the relevant minister within hours of its publication. On Tuesday, the Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan confirmed the intention to outlaw transgender conversion therapy. However, this was not strictly her responsibility but that of Kemi Badenoch, the Equalities Minister. Distancing herself from the policy, Ms Badenoch is to send a letter to all Conservative MPS emphasising that such a prohibition must not end up criminalising parents seeking to advise their children about gender matters.
Given that this is a government proposal it is extraordinary to think that a senior minister believes such an eventuality is at all possible. How are these policies being arrived at inside Whitehall? Do Cabinet committees discuss these issues or are they just pushed out of Downing Street without any wider discussion? A ban on gay conversion therapy was included in the last Queen’s Speech but it has now been extended to gender as well. Where was the demand for this, other than from activist groups like Stonewall? Are Conservative MPS seriously going to be marched through the division lobbies in support of a measure that might turn parents, priests or concerned teachers into criminals for trying to help impressionable children?
The Government has got this the wrong way round. It is not the trans community that needs extra provisions, since laws to protect them already exist, but the children and women whose lives are being affected by the encroachment of identity politics into schools and safe spaces. The major scandals in this area have had nothing to do with charlatans posing as therapists, for which there is little evidence, but gender identity services like the NHS Tavistock Clinic. If ministers want to introduce legal safeguards they should do so against the promotion of potentially harmful gender-changing practices.
The “therapy” at Tavistock was geared towards changing gender. At schools, children are being encouraged to question the immutability of sex, but who decided this should be on the curriculum? Even now, cash-strapped NHS England is recruiting staff to run “gender-inclusive training” across maternity services, to enforce the use of trans-inclusive language and pronouns. There is little support in the country for any of this. The Conservatives would be very unwise to proceed.