Ending conversion practices
The Scottish Government is committed to tackling marginalisation and discrimination in Scotland. We continue to promote equality and human rights and support strong communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe, where human rights are respected. This, of course, includes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and intersex people, and all gender identities and sexual orientations (LGBTQI+).
Conversion practices are undertaken with the intention to change or suppress the sexual orientation or gender identity of another person. Conversion practices are harmful to individuals subjected to them. They are promoted within an ideology that views LGBTQI+ identities as wrong and believes that they can be changed. Their existence contributes to this way of thinking.
We are proposing legislation that protects people from the harm of conversion practices. In doing so, this will contribute to the broader protection of human rights and respect for the dignity of LGBTQI+ people.
Consultation
We are consulting on how we will address conversion practices in Scotland from 9 January to 2 April 2024. Your feedback on this is valuable. Gathering this feedback is a key part of the legislative process.
Read and respond to the public consultation on Citizen Space.
We have also published:
- a factsheet providing additional information about the consultation
- the ending conversion practices consultation
- a summary of the ending conversion practices consultation
- an easy read version of the ending conversion practices consultation summary
- Urdu, Mandarin, Polish, Punjabi and Arabic translations of the consultation summary
Background
In the 2022 to 2023 Programme for Government (PfG), we reaffirmed our commitment to develop a Bill on ending conversion practices in Scotland, including both sexual orientation and gender identity.
The work to develop proposals for legislation builds on the report of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee (January 2022). This report responded to Petition PE1817: “Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ban the provision or promotion of LGBT+ conversion therapy in Scotland”.
We set up an independent Expert Advisory Group on Ending Conversion Practices (EAG) in March 2022. The role of the Group was to advise us on our approach to ending conversion practices. It published a report and recommendations in October 2022. We published our response to the report and recommendations in October 2022.
Support for victims and survivors of conversion practices
We appreciate that some people may find the issues discussed in our public consultation upsetting. We have worked with LGBT Health and Wellbeing to provide a telephone support line for anyone that requires advice or support in relation to the issues raised. You can find the contact details below:
Email: helpline@lgbthealth.org.uk
Phone: 0800 464 7000
More information can be found on the LGBT Health and Wellbeing website.