Trans Tory MP Jamie Wallis hits out at excluding transgender people from conversion therapy ban

The first transgender MP said he is ‘bitterly disappointed’ that trans people will be excluded from a plan to ban conversion therapy.

Conservative MP for Bridgend Jamie Wallis, 37, came out as trans last week in a highly personal statement.

He took to social media today to rally against ministers’ plans to limit a ban on conversion therapy to gay people.

He said it was ‘wrong to exclude protections for a whole group of people from a practice described as “abhorrent.”‘

Conservative MP for Bridgend Jamie Wallis, 37, came out as trans last week in a highly personal statement. He took to social media today to rally against ministers’ plans to limit a ban on conversion therapy to gay people

He said it was ‘wrong to exclude protections for a whole group of people from a practice described as “abhorrent”‘

The backbencher argued that it would be a ‘broken promise’ to allow conversion therapy to be banned, but for it not to apply to trans people.

The outcome of a double U-turn by the Prime Minister last week, in which he appeared to flip-flop on whether to legislate against conversion therapy, has reportedly seen No 10 settle on outlawing ‘only gay conversion therapy, not trans’.

When announcing the initial consultation into the conversion therapy ban, the UK Government said: ‘The proposed protections are universal: an attempt to change a person from being attracted to the same-sex to being attracted to the opposite-sex, or from not being transgender to being transgender, will be treated in the same way as the reverse scenario.

Jamie Wallis, 37, has been praised for his bravery by Prime Minister Boris Johnson after revealing he is ‘not OK’ and being open about having gender dysphoria

Jamie Wallis said he was ‘bitterly disappointed’ at the Government’s decision to exclude trans people from the plans to ban conversion therapy

‘They therefore protect everyone.’

LGBT and religious leaders, including former archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, have put pressure on Boris Johnson to include trans people in a ban on conversion therapy.

In a series of tweets, Mr Wallis said: ‘I’m bitterly disappointed at the Government’s decision not to include gender identity in the ban on conversion therapy.

 Last month Wallis, 37, was fined £270 and given three points on his licence after crashing into a lamppost. He says he has PTSD after being raped last year

Boris Johnson praised the courage of his MP’s statement – hours after his gag at a dinner: ‘Good evening, ladies and gentleman, or as (Labour leader Sir) Keir Starmer would put it, people who are assigned female or male at birth’

Tory MPs have been supporting their colleague on Twitter. Johnny Mercer sent a series of flexed biceps emojis to represent strength while others including party chairman Oliver Dowden praised his bravery. However, the Government has not included trans people in legislation aiming to ban conversion therapy

‘Many have asked what my thoughts are. I’ve always believed that this debate attracts unnecessary hysteria and toxicity, and meaningful results can only come from meaningful debate. 

‘Understandably, concerns need to be looked at and debated, but it is wrong to exclude protections for a whole group of people from a practice described as ‘abhorrent’.

‘I hope the announcement that a separate piece of work will now be done on this issue will be done at speed.

‘If the CT (conversion therapy) ban passes through Parliament without any protections for the transgender community, it cannot be described as anything other than a broken promise.’

The Government has said trans people should be ‘treated with the maximum possible generosity and respect’ but that the ‘complexity of issues requires separate work to further consider transgender conversion therapy’.