More Than 80 LGBTQ Groups Pull Out of U.K. Government Event

(Bloomberg) -- More than 80 organizations pulled out of the U.K. government's international LGBTQ conference due to be held in June after Boris Johnson dropped a plan to ban so-called conversion therapy for transgender people.

The government is wrong to “actively exclude” trans people from the ban, the LGBT+ Consortium, an umbrella body for groups in the U.K., said in a statement on its website on Monday. “We refuse to stand by and let this happen.”

Johnson's office sparked a widespread backlash last week when it said it would drop a key Conservative Party pledge to legally outlaw conversion therapy, the practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual.

Hours later, Downing Street U-turned again -- saying the government would now ban conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people as planned, but transgender people would not be protected.

The discredited practice, also referred to as reparative therapy or sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, is aimed at attempting to convert individuals to be heterosexual or cisgender, or both. A national poll of Britain's LGBTQ community five years ago found that 2% of respondents had undergone the therapies and 5% of respondents had been offered them.

The “Safe To Be Me” event has been billed by the government as the U.K.'s first global LGBTQ conference and aims to “tackle inequality around the world and urge countries to take action.” It is due to take place on June 27-29, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first official London Pride marches.

Jamie Wallis, a lawmaker in Johnson's ruling Conservative Party who last week became the first British MP to publicly identify as transgender, also said the government was wrong to exclude trans people from the ban.

The government said in an emailed statement it was “disappointing” to see the groups withdraw from the conference, and that it will continue to work alongside global forums, including the Equal Rights Commission and European Governmental LGBTI Focal Points Network, to “convene international partners and drive forward action.”

The prime minister has “made the point emphatically that people who want to make a transition in their lives should be treated with the maximum possible generosity and respect, but the complexity of issues requires separate work to further consider transgender conversation therapy,” the government said.