Dear Prime Minister
LGB Issues
We write to you as Labour LGB a group of lesbian, gay and bisexual Labour Party members. For us, as for the great majority of the UK population, biology is real and sex matters.
We launched on 1 February 2025 at the beginning of LGB History Month. Within hours, we had hundreds of followers on X. We already knew that our views are shared by the vast majority of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. We also work with Labour Women’s Declaration, Lesbian Labour and the non-party political LGB Alliance. You are probably aware that the Labour Women’s Declaration has been signed by many thousands of Labour Party members and supporters, and Lesbian Labour has over 10,000 followers. We are all active in the party, many of us CLP office holders and elected Councillors.
Our reason for writing is to draw your attention to three positions of the Labour Government and Labour Party which concern us greatly.
The proposed all-inclusive conversion practices ban
It is a fallacy that conversion practices, as one would normally understand the concept, is happening in the UK.
In arguing for an all-inclusive conversion practices ban, Stonewall has recently made claims that 10% of “LGBTQ+ people” have experienced exorcism and 12% corrective rape. We do not believe these ludicrous claims. In making them, Stonewall further undermines its already questionable credibility.
We would argue that the most prevalent form of conversion therapy is that of LGB young people being led to believe that they were “born in the wrong bodies” and attempting to change their bodies to mimic those of the opposite sex through a lifetime of medical intervention, the removal of healthy body parts and in many cases a complete loss of sexuality. This is especially the case with same-sex attracted biological girls claiming a trans identity – whose exponential rise in recent years is indicative of social contagion. We argue for the rights of these young people to be proudly gender non-conforming and enjoy healthy same-sex relationships without being coerced into thinking they are in the wrong body.
Were a Conversion Practices ban to include conversion ‘therapy’ of trans and non-binary young people, this would make psychotherapists, parents, counsellors, medical professionals and teachers unable to work in their usual way, being unable to explore all aspects of the young person’s life.
This has the potential to be an existential issue for the lesbian, gay and bisexual community.
The proposed puberty blockers trial
The Cass Review recognised that the vast majority of young people who seek gender-affirming care are same-sex attracted, i.e. lesbian, gay or bisexual.
Thousands of young people have taken puberty blockers over the past few years and the Cass Review ascertained that over 90% of these progressed onto cross-sex hormones. Clearly, rather than allowing time for consideration (as claimed) they are a step towards transitioning to the opposite sex. The purpose of the proposed trial is to gather more evidence on the effectiveness and safety of puberty-suppressing hormones but the trial’s timeframe is too short to see the long-term cognitive and physical damage. This evidence already exists but the clinics holding the data have refused to share their records. Clinicians at the former Tavistock GIDS gender identity service used to joke that their therapies and medical interventions were ‘transing away the gay’.
Proceeding with the proposed puberty blocker trial will consign yet another generation of lesbian, gay and bisexual young people to a lifetime of medical intervention, mutilation of their bodies and diminished sexuality. There should instead be a full review of the evidence that already exists.
Labour Party membership of Stonewall’s discredited Diversity Champions Scheme
Stonewall did a worthwhile job of lobbying while the 1997-2010 Labour Government equalised the age of consent for gay men, got rid of Section 28, and brought about legal recognition of same-sex partners as next of kin, civil partnerships and adoption rights. But, since 2016, many have felt that Stonewall’s addition of the TQ+ to its remit has had adverse, even homophobic, impacts on its original core cohort. Several of the founders of Stonewall have publicly denounced the organisation, and even helped the establishment of LGB Alliance.
Stonewall has given misleading advice to clients and misrepresented the Equality Act by conflating gender with sex. Hundreds of public sector bodies, charities and private companies have now abandoned the discredited scheme after employment tribunals showed that Stonewall’s advice broke equality laws.
Yet the Labour Party continues to pay £2,500 per year membership and participates in Stonewall’s misleading diversity training. Labour LGB requests that the Labour Party also leaves the scheme.
Labour LGB has absolute respect for all members of society to live as they wish and love whomever they want. Many of us have friends and family members who identify as trans, queer and non-binary. However, we are all unhappy with the forced pairing of same-sex attraction with gender identity – two very different things.
It is lesbian, gay and bisexual young people who are damaged by an extreme gender ideology.
Yours sincerely
