Law to ban "conversion therapy"

Laurence Vanceunebrock, LREM MP, tabled a bill this Wednesday, June 3, to ban offensive and anxiety-inducing conversion therapies for the LGBTQ community.

The health crisis had shifted the deposition of this law which could well advance the rights of the LGBTQ community. Laurence Vanceunebrock announced the introduction of a bill to ban conversion therapy, a practice that claims to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity. If the registration filing date is still pending, Laurence Vanceunebrock is determined to implement this law in order to punish these conversion institutes considered homophobic: "The only problem is the schedule, but I'm going to put the pressure on" she explains.

What will this law look like? It will aim to allow a complaint to be lodged if a person is a victim of this kind of practice. Laurence Vanceunebrock explains therefore wanting to create a "specific offense to prohibit these practices and provides for aggravating factors to take into account the situation of minors, the public particularly victims of these therapies" Thus, complaints and prosecutions may be possible against these practices.

Often related to religious practices, these conversions of therapies try to convince LBGTQ people that a "conversion to homosexuality" is possible. Encouragement of abstinence, forced marriages, exorcism, rape, excision have already been practiced … These facts have been revealed by people who have undergone these therapies and who are, in majority, minors. If since 1992, homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness in France, we can therefore see the existence "of a very broad spectrum of often insidious practices" according to Laurence Vanceunebrock.

What are the 29 countries that allow gay marriage?

Video by Clara Poudevigne


by Melanie Bonvard