'Conversion therapy’ claims to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
The UK had pledged to outlaw it in England and Wales – but, on 31 March 2022, was reported to have stepped back from including protections for trans people. Elsewhere, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany and Malta have banned these practices, which range from ‘talk therapy’ to physical ‘treatments’. Several US states have done the same.
International health and human rights experts have condemned these treatments as “harmful” and “ineffective”. But they remain common in many places globally. A six-month investigation by openDemocracy in 2021 revealed that health centres in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania – including some funded by foreign aid money – had offered or referred undercover reporters to providers of such anti-gay ‘therapy’.
