'Gay children are being told they are trans!' Kemi Badenoch speaks out with epidemic warning of ‘new form of conversion therapy’

Bryant, a gay man, said he felt less safe partly as a result of "the rhetoric used in the public debate".

This came after the Badenoch said gender-affirming care for children could be seen as "a new form of conversion therapy".

WATCH: Kemi Badenoch says the Tory Party 'knows what a woman is' 

The Minister for Women and Equalities minister made the comment as she confirmed plans to bring forward legislation to ban conversion practices.

But research from Columbia University of Psychiatry warns that gender-affirming care "greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and nonbinary children and adolescents".

It warns: "Growing legislative attempts to limit, ban, or criminalize access to this critical model of medical care endangers the health and well-being of transgender and nonbinary youth".

Speaking in the debate, Bryant told the Commons: "I will say this as gently as I can. As a gay man, I feel less safe today than I did three years or five years ago.

"Why? Sometimes it is because of the rhetoric used in the public debate, including by the Minister.

"I am afraid we are not able to have a debate. Let us have a debate; I would be very happy to debate. I am just making the point that many of us feel less safe today, and when people over there on the Government Benches cheer, as they just did, it chills me to the bone—it genuinely does."

Bryant added: "I will ask the Minister two very simple questions. First, how many people does she think today’s decision will affect—a precise number?

"Secondly, she will know that there are lots of people in the UK who have entered into a same-sex civil partnership or marriage and would like that to be recognised in other countries around the world, so that they can live their lives there, wherever it may be.

"What has she done since being in power to ensure that more countries recognise same-sex civil partnerships and marriages?"

Responding, Badenoch said: "I, too, will speak very gently. The hon. Gentleman says that my rhetoric chills him to the bone.

"I would be really keen to hear what exactly it is that I have said, either in this statement or previously, that is so chilling.

"I will tell him what chilled me. In May 2021, against official advice — I stress that officials said, 'You should not have this meeting' —I met a young lady called Keira Bell, a lesbian, who told me of the horrific experience she had had at the Tavistock clinic.

"It was an eye-opening experience. The hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Neale Hanvey) talked about 'transing away the gay' in his speech in Westminster Hall.

"We are seeing, I would say, almost an epidemic of young gay children being told that they are trans and being put on a medical pathway for irreversible decisions, and they are regretting it."

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She continued: "This is what I am doing for young LGBT children: I am making sure that they do not find themselves being sterilised because they are being exploited by people who do not understand what these issues are.

"I am saying this on the advice of clinicians and academics, because clinicians from the Tavistock clinic have been whistleblowing, talking about what these issues are.

"The hon. Gentleman says that he is traumatised; we are traumatised by what is happening to young children, and we will run away from this issue no longer."