MEMBERS of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies gathered in Market Square on Saturday, April 9, to protest the government’s U-turn on conversion therapy.
Protesters rallied to show their anger at the government’s failure to include trans people in its banning of conversion therapy.
More than 100 people attended to hear speeches from leading LGBTQ+ charities and advocacy groups Reading Pride, Club FOD, SupportU, and MyUmbrella.
The crowd also heard speeches from a number of trans people who had been affected by conversion therapy.
Jamie Wake, one of Reading Pride’s founders and CEO of Club FOD, thanked attendees for showing “that we are one community”.
He said: “While conversion therapy aims to erase your identity, Club FOD, Reading Pride, and SupportU and MyUmbrella, are here to celebrate your identity.”
Lorna McCardle, CEO of Support U, said: “We must come together, to tackle the lack of acceptance for being LGBT+ in society.”
She said that many people think that the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 would mean the protection of LGBTQ+ people.
“But,” she added, “We see time and again that protection has been taken away so quickly, with rights removed in the 80s during the Aids pandemic, and Section 28.”
Speaking about conversion therapy, she said “Statutory services know that conversion therapy doesn’t work, because they have banned it.
“And we know it doesn’t work because people come away from it with more trauma than they went in with.”
Cllr Imogen Shepherd-DuBey, of Wokingham Borough Council, also addressed attendees.
She said “Section 28 stopped people speaking about who they were, which leads to persecution.
“Conversion therapy is a danger to society, and teaching doctrine in this way is abuse.”
“Trans people have been around since before the Bible, and they’re a part of our community.”
Protestors were also addressed by a trans woman who recounted her experience of four years of conversion therapy at the age of 11.
She said “It was not therapy, it was abuse and torture, physical, emotional, and spiritual.
“Seeing so many of you here today reminds me that I was suffering alongside young gay boys, young lesbian girls, and we all suffered together.”
“They tortured us as a community, and it’s important that we fight this as a community.”
Other members of Reading Pride also gave speeches to attendees, before members of the crowd were invited to share their experiences.
You can sign the petition to ensure that trans people are fully protected under any conversion therapy ban at petition.parliament.uk.
