The Government could be set to scrap plans to make it easier to change legal sex, it has been reported.
The Sunday Times revealed that proposals to allow people to change their birth certificate without a medical diagnosis have been shelved.
The newspaper also reported that the Government is preparing to announce a ban on ‘conversion therapy’.
Abandoned
According to The Sunday Times, the details are contained in a leaked paper setting out the Government’s response to a public consultation on the Gender Recognition Act.
Proposals for people to ‘self-identify’ will reportedly be abandoned and those wanting to change their birth certificate will still require a medical diagnosis.
Currently, anyone seeking to change sex must have lived for two years as a member of the opposite sex and have been medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Priority
In response to the story, Downing Street insisted that “no decisions” have been made.
However the Number 10 source did emphasise that the “protection of single sex spaces” is a “top priority”.
The Minister for Women and Equalities has previously guaranteed that single-sex spaces will be protected if changes are made to gender recognition law.
In remarks to the Women and Equalities Select Committee in April, Liz Truss MP suggested that under-18s would not be able to have sex-change surgery, that single-sex spaces would be protected, but that transgender adults should be free “to lead their lives as they see fit”.
Conversion therapy
The Sunday Times also revealed that the Government is preparing to announce a ban on ‘conversion therapy’ although it gave no details on what the legislation would cover.
In 2018, a national newspaper labelled a woman’s Christian testimony as “conversion therapy” after she rejected a homosexual lifestyle.
Emily Thomes, who had been a promiscuous lesbian, left homosexual practices when she became a Christian and shared her testimony in a video made by Christian media group Anchored North.
The Guardian claimed its videos sent an ‘anti-gay message’ and amounted to conversion therapy.
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