Boris Johnson. (Hollie Adams/WPA Pool/Getty)
A conversion therapy ban will be announced in Tuesday’s (11 May) Queen’s Speech, according to ITV and BBC journalists.
ITV reported that the specific details of the ban are “still being worked on”, and that prime minister Boris Johnson has made banning the horrific practice a “personal priority”.
The BBC’s Jessica Parker shared on Twitter the Queen’s Speech was unlikely to give any specific timeframe for a conversion therapy ban and said it was “understood a consultation will be launched before any legislation is introduced”.
Sources, she said, have explained that the “short” consultation will look at how to “protect” professionals such as therapists and teachers as well as religious freedom. However, she said, the ban will cover both conversion therapy for gender and sexual identity, and will come with a victim’s support fund.
The news will be welcomed by a broad range of stakeholders from Conservative MPs to the LGBT+ campaign Stonewall, who have been lobbying the government.
There was concern in March that the promised ban would be dropped, with the equalities adviser Jayne Ozanne resigning from her role over the issue, followed by two other members of the government’s LGBT+ advisory panel.
On the planned ban, Ms Ozanne told ITV News: Whilst I warmly welcome the news that there is finally to be a ban, I am concerned that we are going to have yet more consultation. The government simply need to protect the lives of all LGBT people by doing what the UN has advised and banning all forms of conversion therapy, including religious practices.
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CAR’s Cardinal Nzapalainga: Hopes and challenges of peacemaking.
In a recently published book, Cardinal Nzapalainga reflects on his life as a Spiritan priest, Archbishop of Bangui, Cardinal, peacemaker, hopes and challenges of life in CAR.
Paul Samasumo – Vatican City.
Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the Archbishop of Bangui in the Central African Republic (CAR), has just published a book with the French journalist Laurence Desjoyaux titled
Je suis venu vous apporter la Paix (roughly translated as
I come to bring peace).
Vatican News’ Cyprien Viet caught up with the Cardinal to talk about the book.
A complex conflict
As Archbishop of Bangui, Cardinal Nzapalainga has worked tirelessly to promote peace and reconciliation among the warring factions of CAR and a people fractured by civil war and constant insecurity.