Chants echoed around Oxford city centre this evening as hundreds of protesters turned out to call for a blanket ban on conversion therapy.
Organised by Oxford Against Conversion Therapy, around 200 people attended the event in Bonn Square at 6pm which saw Jayne Ozanne, councillor Chris Jarvis and Dr Clara Barker address the crowd.
People held signs that read ‘TRANS RIGHTS NOW’, ‘Trans Power’ and ‘Celebrate Trans Joy’ and in unison the crowd cheered and shouted “trans rights are human rights” and “no LGB without the T”.
READ MORE: In Oxford “transphobia will not be tolerated", protest organiser says
The protest was organised after a partial U-turn from the Government on plans to entirely scrap LGBT+ conversion therapy.
The Government has now said a ban on conversion therapy for lesbian, gay and bisexual people will go ahead but transgender conversion therapy will not be banned.
Conversion therapy, sometimes known as or ‘cure’ therapy or reparative therapy, refers to any treatment that actively tries to change someone’s sexuality or gender. It is based on the idea that being LGBT+ can be ‘cured’ and ranges from abusive language and physical violence to corrective rape.
Alana Stewart, from Oxford Against Conversion Therapy, felt it was important to do something “concrete” to show members of the community “how much we care about this and how passionate we are”.
She said: “We just want to show a really clear and really loud message.”
“In light of some of the fringe groups, like LGB Alliance, it is important to show that as a community there is no LGB without the T.
“If you come for one of us you come for all of us,” she explained.
Oxford Pride supported the event and chair Debbie Brixey said the huge numbers which turned up showed how “annoyed” and “disappointed” people are.
Mrs Brixey said it was important for a conversion therapy ban to be for all members of the LGBT+ community.
She said: “We do not leave out our trans siblings, it is just not acceptable as far as we are concerned and we wanted to have as many voices as possible, not just Pride saying ‘we are not happy’.
“We wanted everybody from within the community to have a voice, to make it very, very clear to this Government that they have gone back on their promises again.”
Green Oxford city councillor Chris Jarvis got involved in the protest and said: “What you have is the Government saying conversion therapy is inappropriate for lesbian, gay and bisexual people but for trans people it is totally fine. That is just a horrific inditement on their attitude to trans people and trans rights.”
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