Transgender Doncaster Pride member brands Boris Johnson's conversion therapy U-turn a 'betrayal'

The Government plans on pushing ahead with a ban on conversion therapy – which aims to alter a person’s sexual orientation or supress their gender identity – for lesbian, gay and

bisexual people.

However, ministers are refusing to make it illegal for transgender people – a decision which former 2018 Miss Transgender UK, Bea Wood, has warned sends a “scary” message.

She said: “Conversion therapy is barbaric, and it should be outlawed. There are ways to find out if someone is trans and that’s through using registered clinical psychiatrists.

“By saying they’re going to ban it for lesbian, gay and bisexual people but not for transgenders – they clearly know it’s wrong if they’re going to ban it for one community but not for the other.

“It’s betrayal, it’s outright discrimination and it sends a scary message – it shows that the trans movement for equality is moving backwards not forwards because our Government is not supporting us in any given way.”

Ms Wood said she discussed transgender rights with Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, after meeting him on his Roadmap to Recovery tour in the UK.

But the Doncaster Pride committee member admitted she was hurt to see the Tory MP defending Boris Johnson’s decision to exclude transgenders from the ban on conversion therapy after she claimed he agreed with her “trans healthcare needed work”.

She said: “I’m personally extremely hurt by Sajid Javid, I met him a few weeks ago in person, on his Roadmap to Recovery tour where I personally asked why there is inequality in trans

healthcare in the UK.

“He said he would write to because his answers would be too long – he never has, he has failed on that promise.

“He agreed that trans healthcare needed work, he agreed that trans waiting lists are horrendous and he wants to get the down, then his interviews on TV defending Boris Johnson, I was surprised.”

Ms Wood criticised Boris Johnson for referring to transgender women as “biological men” and urged the Prime Minister to listen to her community.

“Please hear us, listen to us, don’t look at what’s in a test tube, look at the reality of things,” she said.

“For Boris Johnson to refer to our trans community as biological males, that was deeply offensive – how dare he, trans women are women, I’m just a human.”

“There’s no way a government can be progressive while leaving old fashioned barbaric things in place.”

Ed Miliband, MP for Doncaster North, also reiterated his belief that conversion therapy should be banned for transgenders.

“I think we’ve really got to stand up for the rights of trans people – yes we’ve got to hear those women who say there’s a case for single sex spaces, I understand that, but I think we

have to recognise the pain that so many trans people face,” he told Sky News.