So-called conversion therapy which supposedly turns gay people straight should be outlawed across the world , Ministers have been told.
The Government was urged to press ahead with long-awaited plans to ban the practice, by Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davis.
Conservatives promised in 2018 to end conversion therapy, when Theresa May was Prime Minister. Last summer, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said plans for a ban would be brought forward.
In the Queen’s Speech earlier this month, the government announced a consultation will be held in England and Wales before the law changes.
It will explore how to ensure the ban does not have “unintended consequences”, and that medical professionals, religious leaders, teachers and parents can keep having “open and honest conversations”.
The government also said it will provide additional financial support to ensure victims of conversion therapy get the help they need.
But critics have accused the Government of moving slowly.
Three members of the Government’s LGBT advisory panel quit in March, complaining of a lack of progress.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Davison said: “I was really delighted to see the ban on conversion therapy appear in the Queen’s Speech, but, as we know, conversion therapy is an issue not just in the UK, but right around the globe.”
She asked equalities minister Liz Truss if she agreed “that these practices should not just be outlawed in the UK, but that we should work with our global partners to support LGBT safety worldwide.”
Ms Truss said: “We are proud that we are instituting the UK’s first ever international LGBT conference under the theme of “Safe To Be Me”, which is about protecting people from persecution worldwide.”
She said the Government’s consultation “will address the issues of gender identity and sexual orientation.”
The NHS does not endorse conversion therapy, sometimes called “reparative therapy” or “gay cure therapy. It has warned all forms of conversion therapy are “unethical and potentially harmful”.
It means trying to stop or suppress someone from being gay, or from living as a different gender to their sex recorded at birth.
