The Conversion Practices (Prohibition) Bill was presented in the House of Commons yesterday for its first reading.
The legislation, proposed by Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, has the backing of several Conservative MPs.
A second reading, which will allow MPs to debate the bill, will take place on March 1.
His bill is one of 20 private members’ bills being presented in the House of Commons, proposed by backbench MPs.
Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity to fit in with heterosexual and cisgender norms.
This can include “counselling” sessions, threatening a person with homelessness, corrective rape and exorcisms.
Plans to ban the practice were at one stage scrapped, before being reinstated without including a ban on practices aimed at transgender people.
However, proposals were not included in the latest King’s Speech last month.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle said he has been “overwhelmed” by the support “from all sides” for his bill.
He said: “Some of the biggest social reforms in this country have happened via private members’ bills.
“Too many have suffered for too long; we have a responsibility to ensure no one else must suffer from this practice.”
It comes as women’s and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch confirmed that the government still plans to bring forward its own bill to ban conversion therapy practices, but said the legislation has to address issues with gender-affirming care.
Ms Badenoch claimed that conversion relating to gender identity poses a “threat to many young gay people” and described gender-affirming care, which supports transgender people, as “a new form of conversion therapy”.
She said: “Attempts at so-called conversion therapy are abhorrent and are largely already illegal.
“What a bill would do is identify this as a particular threat to gay people and confirm the illegality of harmful processes intended to change someone’s sexuality.
“In the time since this bill was first promised, this issue has developed. Now the threat to many young gay people is not conversion therapy relating to their sexuality, but conversion relating to gender identity.
“I believe this is a new form of conversion therapy.”
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