(Photo Credits: Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels)
France is the latest country to ban conversion therapy after its senate has overwhelmingly voted in favor of the ban on Tuesday, with a 305-28 vote.
This means that France is banning all “practices, behaviours, and repeated statements with the intent of modifying or repressing a person’s real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, and having the effect of a material alteration to their mental or physical health.”
Under the new law, conversion therapy is now punishable by imprisonment of two years and carries a €30,000 (around £25,000) fine to three years and a €45,000 (around £38,000) fine if the victim is a minor and the offender is a parent or grandparent of the victim. It will be introduced by the end of February 2022 once French President Emmanuel Macron signs the bill, the Connexion reports.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth Moreno, France’s equality minister, said in a statement: “Being yourself is not a crime.” She added, “Homosexuality and trans-identity are not diseases that can be cured. There is nothing to cure.”
According to GLAAD, conversion therapy is “any attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”
Conversion therapy has been denounced by many organizations such as the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, World Health Organization, and American Medical Association to name a few.
Other countries that ban conversion therapy included Malta, Germany, Albania, Brazil, and Taiwan.
In the United States, on the other hand, around 20 states have already banned conversion therapy for minors. These states are Utah, New Jersey, California, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Hawaii, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, The District of Columbia, and Maine.
Qu’est-ce qui leur a pris si longtemps ?
Great news
SIMPLY PUT,THE WORLD AS WE ALL KNOW IT,IS SLOWLY SLIPPING INTO A
SOCIALISM STATE..DON’T WISH FOR SOMETHING ,THAT NON OF US HAVE EVER
GROWN UP UNDER,WHERE THE STATE TELL’S YOU HOW TOO LIVE, TAKE AWAY YOUR
FREEDOM AND PERSONAL RIGHTS.
TAKE A STAND AND DENOUCE THESE NEW BANS ON EQUALITIES ..
WHAT DOES A BUNCH OF OLD NARROW MINDED MEN AND WOMEN IN POWER KNOW OF THE THOUGHTS AND MINDS OF THE LGBTQ WORLD.
How do you equate this action by the French with “ban on equalities”?
Yelling is hard to read.
Is conversion therapy legal for somebody who undergoes it voluntarily? Its illegal to force some one into it. But there might be some unhappy homosexuals who want to try to be converted to heterosexual.
If the practitioners of conversion therapy were completely honest about what is really achieved, I doubt that anyone would undergo it. In New Jersey, a practice that offered conversion therapy to adults (it is banned for minors) was sued out of existence on the basis of consumer fraud.
[…] 14 – France bans conversion therapy; the law is expected to take effect by the end of February […]