It would be hard to overstate the significance of this announcement made today by the UKCP (the second largest professional therapy body in the UK) that it has decided to remove its signature from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
First it is important to understand what the MoU represents (for readers outside the UK a recent article posted on the CTA website explains in some detail). In summary, the MoU is an interprofessional agreement against conversion therapy (including gender identity) signed by leading UK therapy organisations, employers of therapists and activist organisations including Stonewall. Control of the MoU is in the hands of a small group of activist therapists called the Coalition Against Conversion Therapy (CACT), chaired by Dr Igi Moon. The MoU is committed to gender identity ideology which rejects the biological base of sex. There are key similarities to WPATH in that both are hybrid organisations which frame exploratory therapy as problematic and are committed to pursuing comprehensive re-education of health professionals on ‘intersectionality’.
In its damning statement, the UKCP specifies two main factors informing the decision to withdraw from the MoU. The first involves concerns that the MoU applies to both adults and children which raises serious safeguarding issues. The second is the failure of CACT to respond to requests to discuss these safeguarding issues.
The UKCP is the first professional therapy body that is pushing back against ideological capture. It is breaking the hold of a secretive activist coalition. Finally, the leadership that the therapy field so desperately needs is starting to emerge.
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