> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 'Decades of dithering': Humanists’ fight to ban so-called 'conversion therapy goes' on display - URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/decades-of-dithering-humanists-fight-to-ban-so-called-conversion-therapy-goes-on-display/ - Published: 2026-10-22T14:52:43.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-22T14:52:43.000Z - Description: A new exhibition charts more than 30 years of humanist campaigning against so-called conversion therapy, as the UK Government faces renewed calls to finally deliver an inclusive ban protecting all LGBTQ+ people. - Author: Graham Robson - Tags: News More than three decades of campaigning against so-called conversion therapy have gone on display at **Queer Britain**, highlighting the long fight to outlaw practices aimed at changing or suppressing LGBTQ+ people's identities. The new exhibit looks back at efforts by **LGBT+ Humanists** to challenge conversion practices long before banning them became a mainstream political issue. Its unveiling comes as campaigners continue to push for legislation protecting LGBTQ+ people, including trans people, after years of delays by successive governments. ![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/2026/10/PXL_20261020_190542714-2-1.jpg) Photo courtesy of Humanists UK Conversion practices seek to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. The UK Government itself says people have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse ranging from threats and manipulation to beatings and exorcisms. LGBT+ Humanists traces its history to 1979, when it was established as the **Gay Humanist Group** in the wake of the prosecution of *Gay News* and its editor **Denis Lemon** for blasphemous libel. It later became the **Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association**, or GALHA. Its first president was novelist, poet and campaigner **Maureen Duffy**, one of Britain's early prominent lesbian public figures, who died in May this year. The archive now displayed at Queer Britain reveals how campaigners were raising the alarm about attempts to change people's sexuality more than 30 years ago. In 1993, the group warned lesbians and gay men about a newspaper advert offering anonymous Christian telephone counselling to people who were “inclined” towards homosexuality. ![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/2026/10/PXL_20261020_182935546.jpg) Photo courtesy of Humanists UK Then-secretary **George Broadhead** condemned the service as “dangerous and spurious”. Two years later, members wrote to then Health Secretary **Stephen Dorrell** demanding action against Christian ministries seeking to “cure” gay people. Three decades later, the campaign for comprehensive legislation continues. In June this year, the Government published its draft **Conversion Practices Bill** for England and Wales. The proposed legislation would create criminal offences covering abusive conversion practices that cause serious harm, alarm or distress, while also introducing **Conversion Practice Protection Orders**. Someone convicted of carrying out abusive conversion practices under the proposals could face up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine or both. The draft legislation explicitly covers attempts to change a person's sexual orientation or trans identity, but LGBT+ Humanists is calling for a comprehensive ban covering all LGBTQ+ people in both medical and non-medical settings, including religious environments. ![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/2026/10/PXL_20261020_182951722.MP.jpg) Photo courtesy of Humanists UK Campaigners also want legislation without exemptions based on supposed “consent”. Nick Baldwin, coordinator of **LGBT+ Humanists**, said he was proud of those who had been sounding the alarm about conversion practices decades before many politicians were prepared to listen. “As someone who’s experienced these practices firsthand, I know too well the pain and the trauma they cause,” he said. Nick described approaching a church minister in his thirties because he believed he might be gay and did not want to be. “He then took me through months of ‘prayer counselling’ in order to ‘eradicate my homosexual tendencies’,” he said. “It took me many years to understand that there was another way of looking at the world and for me to learn to accept and celebrate being the person I am, gay and proud.” ![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/2026/10/PXL_20261020_181124749.jpg) Photo courtesy of Humanists UK **Andrew Copson**, chief executive of **Humanists UK**, said the documents preserved a history of people challenging religious conversion practices when few others were doing so. “But I wish the display depicted a battle won, rather than the campaign we continue to run to this day,” Andrew said. “Decades on, after promise after promise from successive governments, conversion practices remain legal in the UK, and LGBT+ people are still being harmed by them. “The draft Bill is a long-overdue step, and now Parliament must finish the job.”