The Know Daily - Tuesday 21 November 2023

_{Read in 5m 14s ∙ Listening to Harry Styles}

Free tomorrow night? Join us at our “pub” quiz at AllBright’s gorgeous space in central London! There are just a handful of tickets remaining, so grab them while you can (the price includes a welcome drink and everyone will leave with an incredible prize). Come with friends or solo - we can’t wait to meet you! 🥰 

A nature reserve in Norfolk, home to the largest grey seal colony in England, has welcomed its first pups of the season. Blakeney National Nature Reserve expects 4,500 pups to be born before early January, with rangers crediting the colony’s success to its undisturbed state, a lack of natural predators and an “abundance” of fish for the seals to feed on. 

📝 Outlawing conversion therapy

A proposed ban on conversion therapy in the UK has been put forward in the House of Lords.

What’s the story?
The Private Members’ Bill, tabled by Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Burt, is set to be debated next year. Burt said there was “cross-party consensus” in favour of banning conversion practices, which are aimed at “suppressing or preventing a person from being gay or existing as a gender different from the sex recorded at birth” and can include “extreme or harmful methods”, said Reuters.

The proposed bill would introduce unlimited fines for those found guilty of carrying out conversion practices, said the BBC, which has seen details of the draft bill.

What’s the political backstory?
The news comes two weeks after Rishi Sunak’s government dropped its proposed ban on conversion therapy from the King’s Speech - a move that sparked anger among equal rights campaigners as well as from some members of his own party. 

A ban was first promised by former PM Theresa May in 2018. It was then “downgraded” by Boris Johnson to not include transgender people, said The Independent, before Sunak’s government again promised in January this year to ban conversion therapy for “everyone”.

What might happen next?
It is “far from guaranteed” that the proposed ban will become law, said the BBC, noting that the bill will have to go through several rounds of voting in the Lords and in the Commons. 

The government has said it is still “carefully considering” a ban on conversion therapy, while Labour has pledged to introduce a “no loopholes” trans-inclusive ban if elected, said The Independent.