Nicola Sturgeon Good news: there’s going to be a consultation in Scotland on banning gay conversion therapy. Bad news: there’s going to be a consultation in Scotland on banning gay conversion therapy. It’s both good news and bad news because the consultation will give us a chance to talk about gay “cures” and what should be done about them. But consultations can also be a sign that politicians are trying to wriggle out of their promises. It is slow presented as fast, stasis as movement, inaction as action. We know this already from the situation on trans rights in Scotland and the rest of the UK, specifically the proposal to change the law to allow trans people to identify their own gender. There have already been two consultations on the subject in Scotland, the second of which was launched after the first one showed overwhelming support for a change in the law. The results of the second consultation then had to be “analysed”; the government then said there would be no bill before the 2021 election because of the pandemic. And so the clock ticks.