Jailed for trying to save a marriage?

A husband tells his pastor he’s leaving his wife and children to live as a woman. If the pastor urges him to stay and keep his vows, the Government’s draft Conversion Practices Bill could send that pastor to prison for up to five years. The Bill’s one exemption is for health care, but there’s nothing that protects a minister, a husband or a wife. Yet in The Telegraph last Friday, the Government claimed its Bill “has already been welcomed by religious groups”. In the same article, the Church of England warned that the law must not “unintentionally criminalise” prayer and pastoral care, and the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool called on politicians to “abandon this bill”.

Last week, I wrote about the Bill’s threat to mothers and fathers. It never once mentions marriage, yet it reaches into its very meaning. Under the Bill, a man “proposing to undergo” gender reassignment counts as having a “transgender identity”. His pastor’s plea to stay is meant to change that, and could be the “emotional pressure” the Bill lists as a sign of abuse. And a wife who refuses to pay for her husband’s new life as a woman could be caught too.

Even the divorce court is within its reach. The Government’s own notes say if, for example, “divorce proceedings” turn up evidence that someone is at risk, the court can issue a protection order “without a separate application being made”. So a wife who opposes her husband’s transition could face an order in her own divorce that no one applied for.

The Government says its Bill sets “high bars” for the violation of the law. The already-in-place provisions of the Serious Crime Act really does. It covers husbands and wives only where someone “repeatedly or continuously” behaves in a controlling or coercive way. But this Bill has no such bar. One single conversation could be enough.

And its champions want it to go even further. Jayne Ozanne, a leading campaigner for the ban, asked by Baroness Prentis whether she’d criminalise praying for someone to change, “even if it is in a family or with a single religious leader praying”, she replied, “Stealing is stealing.” On her terms, a minister who urges a husband not to leave his wife for another man could be treated as a criminal.

But at least a dozen Labour MPs have told their whips they’re unhappy with the Bill. And in the July poll I mentioned last week, fewer than one in five backed a ban that would cover “a minister advising a man not to leave his wife for another man”. People can tell the difference between abuse and a pastor defending a marriage. If enough of us say so now, this terrible Bill can be stopped.

Parliament’s committee on the Bill takes evidence until 5pm on Monday 16 November. If you haven’t yet had time to write, please send in a few numbered paragraphs on what this Bill would mean for marriage, ending “Recommend: drop the Bill.” Either way, ask your MP to press Ministers to drop it. Our guide shows you how.

And please forward this email to your minister, pastor, priest or vicar, whose counsel this Bill puts at risk.

Any minister who urges a husband to keep the lifelong promise he made, is defending real marriage. He is not abusing anyone. C4M will stand up for the ministers, husbands and wives this Bill could put in the dock. The Government must drop this Bill.