JK Rowling Backs Claim the UK's Conversion Practices Bill Is the 'Biggest Threat to Gay Rights Since Section 28'

JK Rowling has re-shared a post claiming the UK's proposed Conversion Practices bill “may also be the biggest threat to gay rights since Section 28”, adding a single word of endorsement: “THIS.”

The post came from columnist Kevin McKenna, who argued in The Herald that the draft legislation risks an “authoritarian government usurping the role of parents in their children's lives”.

What the bill would actually do

The draft Conversion Practices Bill sets out three proposed offences that would ban criminal conversion practices. It defines a conversion practice as conduct carried out towards an individual with the intention of causing them to have, or not have, a particular sexual orientation or transgender identity — including non-binary identities.

There is a healthcare carve-out. Conduct that would otherwise fall under the definition is not treated as a conversion practice when done in the course of providing health care services, unless the practitioner acts in a way that is not “reasonably expected of a person in their position”.

“For many gay and lesbians though, this bill if enacted would represent the greatest threat to gay rights since 1988 when Section 28 … came into force.” — Kevin McKenna, The Herald

The argument driving the row

McKenna's case is that the bill's breadth could backfire on the gay people it is meant to protect. He writes that many in the LGB community fear the legislation's “sprawling and punitive nature” would reinforce some of the practices it seeks to outlaw.

The LGB Alliance goes further, claiming the bill means a parent who suggests a young person might be gay rather than trans “could be accused of a conversion practice and sent to prison for up to five years”. The group calls it “a charter for the angry and aggrieved, enabling anyone with a grudge to bring a malicious prosecution”.

Supporters of the legislation frame it differently: as a narrow criminal ban on coercive attempts to change who someone is, with explicit protections for legitimate clinical care. The disagreement is less about whether conversion practices should be banned than about where the line sits.

Why Section 28 is the comparison being made

Section 28 of the Local Government Act, in force from 1988 to 2003, barred councils in England, Scotland and Wales from “promoting” homosexuality. It became a defining grievance for a generation of queer Britons and helped radicalise a movement.

Invoking it is a deliberate escalation. Whether or not you accept the comparison, the row signals how contested trans-inclusive legislation has become in the UK — and how quickly a bill designed to protect LGBTQ+ people can be reframed as a threat to them.

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Sources: PinkNews, “JK Rowling shares post claiming Conversion Practices bill is ‘biggest threat to gay rights since Section 28’”, 12 November 2026; Kevin McKenna, The Herald, November 2026; LGB Alliance statement as reported by PinkNews.