Scot Govt admits risk of ‘conversion therapy’ law to family life

Earlier this year, Scotland’s Equalities Minister Kaukab Stewart gave her official backing to LGBTI+ lobby group the Equality Network’s ‘conversion therapy’ awareness campaign.

Billboards with the message “LGBT+ Conversion Practices are abuse” were on display in several Scottish cities in an attempt to garner support for a legislative ban.

At the same time as the Equality Network launched its public push for new legislation, the Scottish Greens issued a statement criticising the Scottish Government over the lack of legislative progress. The party accused the SNP of outsourcing “the work [of a conversion therapy law] to a UK Labour Government that has sat on its hands”, and called on the Scottish Government to “lay out a timeline” for legislation.

Shortly after that, Green MSP Mark Ruskell took the opportunity during parliamentary questions to press the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Shirley-Anne Somerville for an update.

Responding to Mr Ruskell, Mrs Somerville repeated the Scottish Government’s commitment to seeking a UK-wide approach to conversion therapy legislation, with the proviso that it is continuing “to prepare legislation for introduction to the Scottish Parliament should that be necessary”.

But it’s what Mrs Somerville said next that is most telling:

“The situation is complex, and we need to ensure that we take into account the right to practise religion and the right to family life.  As we balance that delicate approach, I hope that Mark Ruskell is reassured by my personal commitment, and by the Government’s full commitment, to ending conversion practices in Scotland.”

The fact the Scottish Government is still trying to “balance that delicate approach” – after years of trying to produce a law – shows just how impossible a task it really is. It is a tacit admission that the Scottish Government’s now shelved plans did not get that right, despite all its protestations at the time that the proposals were “carefully developed” to ensure parental rights and religious freedom would not be impacted.

The Scottish Government’s decision to put the brakes on its own deeply unpopular plans and hand responsibility for a Bill to Westminster was first revealed in its 2024-25 Programme for Government, after its proposals for an extreme law met with outrage and days of hostile media coverage.

Independent legal advice from eminent human rights lawyer Aidan O’Neill KC confirmed the proposals would lead to innocent parents facing criminalisation for cautioning a child against gender transition. O’Neill also concluded they “would have the undoubted effect of criminalising much mainstream pastoral work of churches, mosques and synagogues and temples”.

The Law Society of Scotland likewise asserted that the badly drafted plans “may criminalise legitimate behaviour” – such as “praying with anyone about their sexual ethics or sexual behaviour, or offering counselling on such issues”.

The claim that a new law is needed to protect gay and trans Scots from abuse is simply not credible. Existing law rightly already protects people from abuse. What activists really want is a low-threshold speech crime to punish those who reject LGBT ideology.

The Scottish Government may say it wants to ensure that “fundamental rights… such as freedom of religion and the right to family and private life, are upheld”. But as a growing number of countries have concluded, it’s just not possible to craft an activist-approved conversion therapy law without trampling on the basic human rights of ordinary people.