Rutland and Melton MP welcomes plans to crack down on conversion therapy
Alicia Kearns campaigned for the changes, which she says will protect LGBTQ communities
“You deserve to be loved and love freely and we will crackdown on people who say otherwise” – that’s the message from the MP for Rutland and Melton.
Alicia Kearns says banning conversion therapy is the right thing to do for the Rutland LGBT community and others across the country.
The Government is planning to put an end to certain types of conversion therapy in a bid to protect LGBT people - the practice of trying to change someone’s sexuality or gender.
Under the new proposals, it would be a criminal offence to use talking conversion therapy on children and non-consenting adults.
MP Alicia Kearns, who campaigned for the new laws, told us why it is so important they are implemented:
“This ban on conversion therapy matters for Rutland like it matters for every other county in the country because there are people in our LGBTQ plus community, the intersex community, people who have been told that they are not normal or don’t deserve to be loved – that the way they feel is wrong – and that is utterly unacceptable.
“I will never stand or allow for things like that, when I was elected, I said I was going to be a voice for the voiceless and that is what this law does, it says ‘you are seen and you are recognised and there is nothing wrong with you’ I will damn sure make sure I fight to make sure no one tells you there is something wrong with you.”
She has some reservations around the idea that adults can consent though because she says “it is not consent when everyone in society or that community is telling you - you have to change.”
People are being encouraged to fill out the consultation on the proposals, ahead of the laws being implemented in the spring.