Gay conversion therapy is not really a problem in Britain
Julia Hartley-Brewer said:
“I don't think there has actually been a big issue in this country with even gay conversion therapy. That's a big thing in America.”
High-profile conversion therapy cases in the UK media have been rare compared with American coverage, so the claim that it is mainly an American phenomenon can sound plausible to someone who has not looked at the UK data.
The UK Government's own National LGBT Survey found that five percent of respondents had been offered conversion therapy and two percent had undergone it: figures that represent tens of thousands of people in this country, not a handful of edge cases. It happens in churches, in private therapy rooms, in family homes, and through religious counselling, most of it quiet and unreported, which is precisely why it rarely makes headlines. The gap between American coverage and British coverage reflects how well the practice hides, not how rarely it occurs. Every LGBT person whose experience is waved away as an American problem is left without the protection they need.
What I said at the time:
“You may not know, but there are plenty of LGBT people who have been through conversion therapy, whether that's full on elastic bands, vomiting, prayers, what have you, or whether it's subliminal”
LGBT people in the UK who have experienced conversion therapy and whose harm is minimised or erased by the claim that it barely happens here.