LGBT People: Gay Conversion Therapy

(asked on 26th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, in which countries the UK Government is supporting efforts to end LGBTQ+ conversion therapy.


Answered by
Wendy Morton Portrait
Wendy Morton
This question was answered on 2nd February 2021

The UK plays an active role across the world in support of LGBT rights. We work through our embassies and high commissions and through international organisations, including the UN, Council of Europe, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Commonwealth, to promote non-discrimination towards LGBT people, and to address discriminatory laws. In our role as co-chair of the Equal Rights Coalition (ERC) with Argentina, we are ambitious about what we can achieve through delivery of the ERC's first UK led strategy that seeks to shape, guide and re-energise the ERC's work to advance LGBT equality.

Due to its highly sensitive and sometimes dangerous nature, it would not be appropriate to specify the countries our LGBT programmes operate in, but we have consistently committed funding to LGBT rights programme work. In addition to funding through our UK Aid Connect Programme and International Programme Fund, in October, we announced £3.2m of new funding to continue the work we announced during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in 2018 that works with civil society to support countries seeking legislative reform. We also prioritised £800,000 of funding for The Commonwealth Equality Network (TCEN) to support civil society work to advance LGBT equality.

Reticulating Splines