The European Commission has to do more to ban conversion practices

As a result of the European Citizens’ Initiative Against Conversion Therapy (ACT), the European Commission is being called upon to strengthen its measures to ban so-called conversion therapies. ACT had collected more than one million signatures to, among other things, ensure that more member states implement a national ban on “interventions such as psychotherapy, medication, electroshock therapy, and exorcism that aim to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.” So far, only eight out of 27 countries have bans in place, as euronews reports. Hadja Lahbib, EU Commissioner for Equality, announced a recommendation. “‘Conversion practices are based on a lie. The lie that LGBTIQ+ people need to be ‘fixed,’“ Lahbib said (...). ”You cannot torture a person’s identity away," euronews quotes the commissioner as saying.

Right-wing and Christian fundamentalist groups have been campaigning for years against efforts to ban such practices in the EU. Meanwhile, the first “detransition clinic” has opened in Texas, USA. This facility is the result of a legal dispute between the Department of Justice and a children’s hospital in Houston. Part of the settlement also involves the forced dismissal of five doctors who had provided gender-affirming care to trans youth. The settlement is viewed as a major success for the Trump administration, as Huffington Post reports.