64% of transgender pupils are bullied for being trans at school. 1 in 10 trans pupils are subjected to death threats at school. 92% of young trans people have thought about taking their own life. 84% of young trans people have self-harmed. 45% of young trans people have tried to take their own life. These statistics are all taken from Stonewall’s School Report in 2017.
Most people would see these statistics and be shocked and appalled. Most people would hopefully see what they could do to help improve these statistics. For example, ban LGBT ‘conversion therapy’ (which is the practice of trying to change someone’s sexuality or gender identity.) The Stonewall LGBT in Britain - Health Report found that one in five trans people have been pressured to access services to suppress their gender identity when accessing healthcare services. However, the UK government does not appear to recognise this issue, as they recently excluded transgender people from the conversion therapy ban.
The Health Secretary Sajid Javid recently said, in an interview with Sky News, that the Government’s decision to ban “so-called conversion therapy for LGB people” was “absolutely right”, however “we need to be more careful” when it comes to Transgender people. In an interview with The Independent, Boris Johnson said, “I don’t think that it’s reasonable for kids to be deemed so-called Gillick-competent to take decisions about their gender or irreversible treatments that they may have. I think there should be parental involvement at the very least”. However, this statement does not relate to conversion therapy, and transgender children do not have the legal right to make decisions about treatments, everything is done with parental consent. The “irreversible” treatments he references are also not available to children, as only temporary puberty blockers are occasionally offered. These blockers are all reversible as they do not cause any changes, they just pause puberty. Boris Johnson continued to say that “biological males” should not be competing in women’s sports, which is another issue that is unrelated to conversion therapy.
I spoke to multiple of my friends who identify as transgender, about their views on the Governments decision. My friend Oak (he/they) said that “It is simply not fair! The idea of not banning conversion therapy for the trans community is ridiculous, especially having acknowledged the potential harm this practice can cause and the harm it has already caused to individuals in the trans and LGBT+ community. Having recognised the gaps in the law, we should expect more from the government. You must not ignore the raised rates of poor mental health, and suicide, in the trans community, if banning conversion therapy could change how much someone feels comfortable and safe and as well as simply accepted, then I don't see any reason that the conversion therapy ban should not apply to the trans community.”
Another friend of mine agreed and said that the government’s decision “goes to show how little protection the government is willing to give trans people” as well as showing that “they’ve never been willing to do more than the bare minimum” to support trans people. I also spoke to Al (he/they) who believes that “many people still believe that there is an ulterior and harmful motive to being trans rather then it truly just being who we are. Along with this I think people in those higher positions are only focusing on the few de-transitioners who speak out about how they were wrong rather than the many happy trans people living their lives after coming out, starting hormones or surgeries. I think this is causing them to not take trans matters seriously and see it really as something that can be changed.”
To conclude, I believe that this transgender exclusion from the ‘conversion therapy’ ban is a small part of a much larger problem. This problem being the widespread and normalised transphobia that exists in the UK, and around the world. The UK has very poor transgender health care, the government have refused to legally recognise non-binary identities, and now ‘conversion therapy’ is legal for transgender people. As a young trans person myself, I have very little faith in the government and the UK in general to help me, protect me, or support my rights. The government needs to do better.
