On Friday 15th March, our group had a discussion about where to take the campaign in the next few months in the run-up to the presentation of the petition on 4 June. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to attend. The wide variety of people present – both Labour and non-Labour members – made for a fruitful discussion, and hopefully in the coming months we can use the different skills we all have to make for a packed final stage to the campaign. Some of the key ideas discussed were:
- A street protest in Hull, using links with community groups in the city.
- Asking if sixth form colleges and schools could generate some interest + using college newspapers.
- Production of flyers, leaflets and banners to inform people of conversion therapy.
- Ways to promote positive therapy and counselling for those who are experiencing sexuality issues.
- Using the Labour Students motion against conversion therapy as a template for resolutions in Trade Unions and other branches of the Labour Party.
- Meeting of Chris Bryant MP on 10 May – ideas for turning it into a big, headline event.
It’s probably worth going into some detail on our wider campaign thus far. We’ve had incredible support from local organisations such as the Warren, Cornerhouse and everyone else in the LGBT Forum in Hull. The LGBT+ Society at Hull University have also been extremely supportive, as have a network of seven other LGBT-related community groups across the country, who have been promoting our petition in their localities.
On a national level, Pink News have been fantastic in creating national interest in our group, and are about to publish a comment piece promoting our campaign even further. AllOut.org have also been very supportive and took the initiative in contacting our little group once we made headlines in Pink News. Their network of members will be vital once we come to the later stages of the campaign, and start to lobby the Department of Health hard.
In Parliament, we’ve had fantastic support from Diana Johnson MP, and Steve Reed MP has also kindly agreed to sponsor our Early Day Motion against gay-to-straight conversion therapy. We’ve also just made contact with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on HIV and AIDS – believe it or not, there isn’t a purely LGBT-related APPG in Parliament, so the HIV and AIDS group was the next-best option. Early signs are we might be able to work with this group to get the issue of gay-to-straight conversion noticed by a number of sympathetic MPs.
The issue, of course, is how we use these links – local and national – to ensure that Parliament finally starts talking about the problem of gay-to-straight conversion therapy in Britain. So we’re making an appeal. If anyone reading this has any ideas, don’t hesitate to comment on this page, or email us at tcstephens1@gmail.com.