Odds on conversion therapy ban will collapse amid confusion - Susan Dalgety

I am not a betting woman, but I wager that the government’s plans to ban conversion therapy practices will collapse amid confusion, just as the gender recognition reform bill did in January when the Scottish Secretary blocked it from becoming law.

Equalities minister Emma Roddick launched a consultation on a conversion therapy ban in January this year

And the new hate crime legislation, which came into force last Monday, is already mired in controversy, leading some to suggest it will go the same way as the 2012 law on offensive behaviour at football matches, which had to be repealed because it was impossible to enforce properly.

The proposed conversion therapy bill will restrict attempts to stop or suppress someone who is same-sex attracted, or from identifying as the opposite sex.

I don’t know a single person who is against the principle of banning so-called “therapy” for someone who is gay, lesbian or bi-sexual. A person’s sexual orientation is as natural as the colour of their eyes – it is who they are – and there are already adequate measures in place that make trying to change someone’s sexual orientation illegal.

The 2010 Equality Act, for example, offers protection to people with the protected characteristics of sexual orientation and gender reassignment from unwanted conduct which creates an “intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”.

The biggest problem with the new bill is its focus on gender identity, which it cannot even define.

In recent years there has been a steep rise in the number of young people who believe – for whatever reason – that they were "born in the wrong body”, that they are “transgender” and that they will not live happy and fulfilling lives unless they change their sex.

I personally know of nearly a dozen parents and grandparents in my small social circle here in Edinburgh who are struggling to cope with their teenage girls insisting that they are, in fact, boys.

Under this new law, there are very real fears that parents will be penalised for trying to protect their daughters. A mother could find herself in court for insisting her 15-year-old daughter does not wear a breast binder, a dangerous piece of clothing which some trans organisations insist is essential to affirm a child’s “gender identity”.

The largest study ever done on adolescents who want to change their sex was published only a few weeks ago. It shows that by the time they reach their mid-twenties, the vast majority no longer want to be the opposite sex. Yet some of these young women will have endured a double mastectomy and years of testosterone therapy.

I am not alone in my fears about this bill. The Law Society of Scotland says the current proposals are “too broad”. And the MP for Edinburgh South West, Joanna Cherry KC, could not hide her scepticism about the purpose behind the conversion therapy bill.

Writing last week on social media she said: “Self ID and badly worded hate crime and ‘conversion practices’ legislation are the three measures gender identity ideologues use to advance their agenda. Given how the first two have worked out in Scotland is it really wise to pursue the third?” But is the Scottish Government big enough to learn from its mistakes? Somehow I doubt it.