Mexico City Follows Through, Bans So-Called 'Conversion Therapy'
Lawmakers in Mexico City have followed through on earlier preliminary steps, outlawing the practice of so-called 'conversion therapy."
The regional congress approved the measure on July 24, backing up the new law with up to five years' jail time for offenders - more, if the individuals subjected to the sham practice are minors, Reuters reported.
"Conversion therapy" purports to "cure" LGBTQ people and "turn" them straight or cisgender. The practice has been decried by reputable mental health professionals, who note that the practice is utterly ineffective and can be deeply damaging to vulnerable individuals.
Reuters reported that the new law in Mexico states that "conversion therapy" consists of:
...psychological or psychiatric measures or treatments which intend to "nullify, hinder, modify or undermine" the expression of a person's gender identity or their sexual orientation.
As previously reported at EDGE, lawmakers in Mexico City gave their preliminary approval to the new law earlier this month.
Reuters reported that:
Methods applied by proponents of conversion therapy to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity have ranged from psychological counseling to religious instruction and even electroshock therapy.
The practice has become widely discredited in recent years.
Indeed, even former high-profile leaders in the so-called "ex-gay" movement have stepped forward in recent years to acknowledge that "conversion therapy" does not work, and can be harmful. Some have issued public apologies for their roles in promoting the sham practice.
Twenty states in the U.S. ban the practice from being inflicted on minors. A number of other foreign nations have also criminalized the pseudoscientific practice, with Israel's Knesset recently having given its preliminary approval to a ban in that Middle Eastern country.