
Preston held its second pride parade on Saturday to call for the immediate and complete ban of conversion therapy in the United Kingdom, amid repeated commitments by the British government to do so.
The city in North West England hosted its 11th annual pride event since 2012, but the parade across the city centre only started last year.

Conversion therapy, or conversion practices, is defined by the UK Parliament as activities with the predetermined purpose and intent of changing a person’s sexual orientation, or changing a person to and from being transgender.
According to LGBT rights organisation Stonewall Scotland, conversion therapy often include pseudo-scientific practices such as being asked to ingest “purifying substances”, being prayed over, exorcisms, and other forms of counselling session associated with threats to convince or even coerce an individual to change their sexual identity.

“Conversion therapy is a barbaric practice, and every effort should be made to stamp out such a thing,” said Dean Toppings, a student nurse from University of Central Lancashire
A government national LGBTQ survey conducted in 2018 found that out of the 108,100 respondents, 7% of all respondents had been offered or underwent conversion therapy. Within transgender respondents, 13% of them have been offered or undergone such practices.
In the King’s Speech to the UK Parliament in July, the new British government under the Labour party has renewed its commitment to introducing a draft Conversion Practices Bill that will be brought forward to outlaw conversion therapy nationally.
The Labour Party’s manifesto described conversion therapy as abusive. “Here is no other word for it – so Labour will finally deliver a full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices,” it read.
Many hope that the transgender community will be included in the eventual bill.
“Trans rights are human rights, and we must continue to fight for these rights and leave no member of our community behind,” said Debs Bradshaw, Chair of the Organising Committee of Preston Pride.

Thomas Statham, 35, identifies himself as asexual and wishes to use the Preston Pride platform to raise awareness for the asexual community.
Among the marchers was Sarah Mather, 62, who identifies as a lesbian.
“I think there is too much religion in politics, and that’s where the problem is. The religious lot is stopping anyone from banning conversion therapy,” she said.
Stephanie Holmes, Chief Executive Officer of Chrysalis, an organisation that offers transsexual support groups, believes that the transgender community is given lower priority and less attention than its lesbian, gay and bisexual counterparts.

“What the government should do is actually talk to trans people. It's something that very few people, very few politicians actually do,” said Holmes. “Things like conversion therapy need trans people included in it and not just popped on the sideline again.”

Conner Dwyer, Preston City Councillor for the Labour Party said the draft bill does not include transgender individuals because there is still uncertainty around how to proceed with the bill.
“A conversion therapy ban ought to be universal, ought to be trans inclusive. There are those within the Labour party who are fighting for that,” Dwyer said. “I think we're still in the very early days of policy development. It's a firm commitment, but the details of the policy are yet to be ironed out.”
“A careful, sensible government would do that. You would take your time before implementing policy,” Dwyer added.
《The Young Reporter》
The Young Reporter (TYR) started as a newspaper in 1969. Today, it is published across multiple media platforms and updated constantly to bring the latest news and analyses to its readers.

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