Belfast protest calls for ban on conversion therapy for transgender people

Q Radio News/PA

More than 200 people gathered in the centre of Belfast to call for the inclusion of transgender people in a ban on conversion therapy.

Protesters carried placards which read ‘Ulster says no to transphobia’ and chanted: “Boris Johnson must understand, without trans people it’s not a ban” at the front gates of Belfast City Hall.

The Government has faced criticism over a series of U-turns on promised legislation to outlaw conversion therapy, and its backtracking on commitments to include transgender people in the ban.

Addressing the rally in Belfast, John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project, said that if conversion therapy was wrong for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, then it was also wrong for transgender people.

He said: “I think it is important that we send a message to Westminster.

“That we send a message to Boris Johnson and we stand in solidarity with our organisations right across the UK and Ireland.

“We are standing in solidarity today to say clearly to this Government that they must end the harm.

“They must end conversion therapy. If conversion therapy is wrong for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, then it is also wrong for our trans and non-binary communities as well.”

Mr O’Doherty added: “For too long conversion therapy has hugely impacted on the lives of LGBTQIA people.

“For too many years we have been told we are not good enough. For too many years we have been told that we must change who we are.

“We are here today in this very iconic space to say…Never. Never. Never.”

Demonstrators in the centre of Belfast at a rally to call for the inclusion of transgender people in a ban on conversion therapy