Theresa May has urged Boris Johnson to ban transgender conversion practices as part of the proposed legislation.
Writing in the newspaper and on the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Pride, the former Conservative prime minister said: “Few people, reading the accounts of trans people, would agree that they still face indignities and prejudice, when they deserve understanding and respect.
“We must strive for a better understanding of both sides of the debate. Just because a topic is controversial, doesn’t mean we can avoid addressing it.
“Therefore, the government must fulfill its commitment to consider the issue of transgender conversion therapy.
“If you don’t have to be in the bill, you shouldn’t allow the matter to slip.”
His comments follow an initial move in late March by the prime minister to abandon plans to ban any conversion practices. However, a few hours after a backlash, the government took a U-turn.
Ministers later described legislation, the Conversion Therapy Bill, in the Queen’s speech that would prohibit conversion practices aimed at changing someone’s sexual orientation in certain settings.
But he said that because of the “complexity of the problems and the need for more careful reflection,” the legislation would not prohibit transgender conversion practices.
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In his article for the newspaper, May said he regretted his past opposition to LGBT equality, after voting against lowering the age of consent for homosexual acts in 1998 and against repealing it. of Article 28 in 2002.
He said that 50 years after activists were subjected to abuse and ridicule, “we can be proud of how much and profoundly attitudes have changed.”
She added: “I get into this: looking back now, there are issues I would have voted on differently, if I had voted for them today.”
However, May’s statement comes after Scottish Conservative MSP Jamie Greene criticized the government this week for excluding transgender people from the proposed ban, calling the measure “indefensible”.
Greene said: “First of all, I am not a member of the UK government, I want to make it clear, and it is not my job to defend the indefensible.”
He told PinkNews: “We committed to the LGBTQ + community that we would ban conversion therapy. We should keep that promise and the Scottish government should do exactly the same.
“We should do it here, we should do it in Westminster, we should do it in Wales, we should do it in Northern Ireland.”
Johnson, who also wrote for the newspaper, said it gave him “the greatest pride in leading a country where anyone who wants to be loved can be loved.”