Labour plan to 'ban help for children JINE n confused over their gender'

A BAN on so-called conversion therapy is expected in the King's Speech tomorrow - as campaigners warn it will stop children who are confused about their gender being given the help they need.

- Sam Lister

Labour wants to outlaw any attempt to try to change someone's sexual orientation or gender.

But critics fear genuine therapists trying to help struggling young people who identify as "trans" are likely to be caught up in the move.

A recent review into gender services for under-18s by retired consultant paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass found young people with "gender distress" often had mental health struggles and needed holistic care, which includes therapy.

Maya Forstater, of human rights charity Sex Matters, said Labour was carrying out the changes after campaigning by trans activists.

She said: "Dr Cass said the firstline treatment for gender-distressed children should be talking therapy and perhaps antidepressants.

"But the gender identity lobby doesn't want this. It has labelled her approach 'conversion therapy' in a desperate attempt to silence those who oppose telling unhappy children that the way to feel better is to alter their healthy bodies.

"Every study of trans-identifying children has found that, unless the grown-ups around them reinforce their identities by pretending they have changed sex, most will outgrow their gender confusion.

"Gender identity isn't a stable, lifelong characteristic like sexual orientation. Change is the norm, not the exception. The people who will be harmed by the proposed law are those it's supposed to protect: distressed kids."

Dr Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics, carried out the most comprehensive review to date of how boys and girls who are unhappy with their gender are treated.