The government has come under fire for a now-deleted tweet asking people to debate conversion therapy and the effect it has on the LGBTQ community. The House of Commons asked ‘should it be made illegal’ and ‘what would that mean to you’ in a tweet branded ‘needlessly upsetting and cruel’. Conversion therapy, which aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or suppress their gender identity, is based on an assumption that being lesbian, gay, bi or transgender is a mental illness that can be ‘cured’. It has been likened to medical and psychological torture and all major counselling and psychotherapy bodies in the UK, including the NHS, condemn it on logical, moral and ethical grounds.