I’m pleased to announce that all the sheets for our petition against gay-to-straight conversion therapy have finally been gathered together and added up, and we’ve collected some 2037 signatures. We’ve also received messages of support from individuals and organisations across the country.
Diana Johnson MP will formally submit the petition on Monday 15th July. Because of unforeseen circumstances Diana’s had to move the date back from the planned date of tomorrow. This is completely beyond our control, but this does mean that any late petition sheets CAN still be submitted to her Parliamentary address, which is simply Diana Johnson MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.
This certainly isn’t the end of our campaign. Our Early Day Motion against conversion therapy will remain available for MPs to sign, and has already attracted support from over forty MPs. If you haven’t already, please do lobby your MP to sign this EDM using our draft letter.
In the coming parliamentary year, there’s also the prospect of a backbench business debate and/or a Westminster Hall debate on conversion, and there is a small chance next year that a friendly MP will win the ballot to table a Private Members Bill on gay-to-straight conversion therapy. The Coalition Government will also be conducting a public consultation on the future for LGBT equality after the gay marriage act and we’ll certainly use this to draw their attention to gay conversion therapy amongst many other issues, such as homophobic bullying.
Last but not least, next year, this network will campaign for better LGBT-friendly mental and physical health treatment, tackling some of the atrocious inequities which are reflected in Stonewall’s recent Gay and Bisexual Men’s Health Survey. For us, this seems to follow on neatly from gay conversion therapy. Indeed, in many ways conversion therapy is just a reflection of this wider issue. It’s easy to forget that there are still, in the medical and therapy professions, individuals practicing who received their training when homosexuality was considered a mental illness. Certainly the majority were trained in the era of Section 28 and the unequal age of consent.
Forgive us the indulgence, but we think it’s appropriate to end this with a quote from a local hero, the Hull-born gay poet and author, Dan Billany (1913-c. 1943). A gay man in an unaccommodating world, Dan underwent years of struggle over his sexuality, as recorded by Colin Livett in an excellent write-up on our website for LGBT History Month. Sometimes, this struggle saw him undergo his very own “conversion therapy,” believing in vain that marriage would change his sexual preference.
Whilst a Prisoner of War in Italy, Dan found true love in a fellow POW, David Dowie. Yet when he declared his love to Dowie he was rejected, and the two became momentarily estranged. In an effort to preserve his friendship with Dowie, he wrote him an emotional poem. It was here that Dan boldly came to understand and affirm his own sexuality:
“When nature carved my limbs, was I consulted?
Do I control the movement of my blood?
Could I reject the nose so oft consulted?
(An organ I would barter if I could)
Just so, I can’t be cancelled by degree
And love not you because you love not me.”
The poem was enough for David to resume his friendship with Dan, but it’s unknown whether the relationship went any further than this. Neither returned to Britain. They disappeared in 1943, having escaped the POW camp together. No trace has ever been found of their bodies.
If David Dowie did not indeed fall in love with Dan Billany, we can at least rest assured that Dan died alongside a man who, having read that poem, was willing to accept him for who he was. The same was not true for so many others in Britain in subsequent decades. Sadly, for a smaller but still significant portion of the LGBT community, the same is also not true today. As one modern-day sufferer of conversion therapy told our network at Hull Pride last year after he signed our petition,
“I simply want to be happy being who I am.”
This quote, and Dan’s poem, sums up what our campaign has always been about. Far from an illiberal attempt to restrict people’s “choice” to change their sexuality, it’s simply sought to foster wellbeing by moving against a practice which tell people their sexuality is an illness.
When the idea for a campaign on conversion therapy was drawn up over a year ago, we didn’t expect anything like the level of support we’ve received. We just had modest aims for a small, local petition with a few signatures from the local Labour parties. But thanks to press coverage and an immense amount of attention from local non-partisan LGBT groups, this campaign has mushroomed beyond our wildest hopes. On behalf of everyone at the Network: thank you for making this possible.