Dustin Lance Black: If Conversion Therapy Involved Straight People, It Would Be Banned in 24 Hours

Last week Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black contended that if the discredited practice of conversion therapy applied to straight people 'that it would be banned in 24 hours," he told Reuters in an interview last week.

"This government is ignoring the lives of queer people," the U.S. screenwriter told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video call from his home in south London, shared with husband British Olympic diver Tom Daley and their two-year-old son, Robbie Ray.

"There is no urgency from this government to protect LGBTQ people," said the 46-year-old Oscar winner. "We keep hearing, 'Soon, soon, soon.' Well, I'm so sorry to inform this government that 'soon' came and went years ago now."

A spokeswoman said the British government wanted to "stamp out conversion therapy" and would set out proposals shortly," Reuters adds.

But the British news site Unilad reported last week that April 2021 "marked 1,000 days since Theresa May pledged to outlaw conversion therapy in the UK. In the years since, charities, human rights organisations and practitioners have rallied for a ban to come into effect, and yet the practice, which attempts to 'change' a person's sexuality or gender identity, is still legal."

Conversion therapy, Cosmopolitan wrote last week that conversion therapy "has been condemned by NHS England, the UN and the British Psychological Society for its harmful effects. In 2018, the government said it planned to ban it. This year, representatives from eight political parties wrote to the Equalities Minister, stating that 'the longer we wait, the weaker the intention sounds.' So why is this taking so long? And what impact does conversion therapy have on those subjected to it?"