SNP passes motion demanding extreme conversion therapy ban

by Joanna Timm

The SNP conference has passed a motion calling for a Scottish conversion therapy ban.

Passed unopposed to loud applause, the motion condemns Westminster’s draft ‘conversion therapy’ Bill as “inadequate” and calls on the Scottish Government to introduce its own, even more extreme legislation “within the first year of this new Parliament”.

The motion comes two years after the Scottish Government abandoned its own plans for a conversion therapy ban amid a bruising public backlash and the threat of internal division. Responsibility for a ban was handed to Westminster in September 2024 in an attempt to swerve the controversy. Now, activists within the party are pressuring Scottish Ministers to revive their shelved plans. The motion’s passing makes this official SNP policy, though it remains for the Scottish Government to decide whether to act on it. The Scottish Greens have also piled in, urging the SNP to “listen and turn that call into a watertight ban” and adding: “[We] will be happy to work with them to do it.”

The motion specifically calls for a ban covering “all medical and religious settings” – a swipe at the Westminster draft Bill, which, on the face of it, includes a carveout for medical professionals. Yet the very need for a carveout is itself an admission that the draft Bill is already too broad: if legitimate healthcare wouldn’t be caught, why include an explicit exemption? In any case, the exemption offers little more than a fig leaf. It would do little to prevent a chilling effect on conscientious practitioners who believe that trans-identification calls for exploration, not affirmation. Worse, by relying on the phrase “standards reasonably expected”, the carveout offers no meaningful protection where a regulator mandates affirmation.

Westminster’s proposed new criminal offence is already so sweeping that it could criminalise:

• a parent guiding their child away from harmful bodily interventions like breast-binding
• a pastor advising a husband not to leave his wife and family in order to live as a woman
• a colleague using biologically-accurate pronouns for a person in the workplace

The motion lays bare the ambitions of those campaigning for this legislation. They want to ensure that a therapist or pastor cannot so much as question someone’s claim to be transgender. This is despite the evidence that has come to light about the link between transgenderism and autism in teens, and the growing number of detransitioners coming forward after youth transitions. Criminalising a non-affirmative approach to serious life-altering choices, especially when children are involved, is an unconscionable assault on basic safeguarding.