Mexico’s legislature approved this week a reform to eliminate and penalize the so-called “sexual conversion therapies”which became popular in many areas of the country and gave rise to “scandalous abuse” caused by the practices of “therapies aimed at repressing people’s sexual orientation or gender identity”It was reported this Thursday.
Now it remains for the initiative to pass through the Chamber of Deputies, where it is expected that it will not face any setback to be sanctioned and then promulgated.
The initiative contemplates sanctions of two to six years in prison for anyone who “carries out, imparts, applies, forces or finances any type of treatment or therapy, aimed at repressing the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person,” according to the agency. ANSA news.
Punishments could be doubled in cases where the aforementioned behaviors are applied to those under 18 years of age, the elderly or disabled.
“There are legal and scientific arguments that show that conversion therapies violate the human rights of people because of their sexual orientation”affirmed the head of the pro-government caucus in the Senate, Ricardo Monreal.
“It is time for legislators to grant people in the LGBT+ community the appropriate legal framework that allows them to make a fair and necessary claim a reality so that they are in a position to understand and comprehend the reality in which they live,” he added.
? #TodayInTheSenate it was approved to penalize ECOSIG or “conversion therapies”. This reform adds to the Federal Penal Code the chapter “Crimes against Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity of People” and also modifies the General Health Law.https://t.co/ASHiNuQ2P5 pic.twitter.com/e13VUG3SGn
– Mexican Senate (@senadomexicano) October 12, 2022
The legal proposal had the support of legislators from all party factions and there were only 16 abstentions from the conservative parliamentarians of the National Action Party (PAN).
Meanwhile, organizations for the defense of homosexual rights described conversion therapies as “one of the greatest attacks against the human rights of LGBT+ people in Mexico.”
“A typical way to practice these therapies is through clinics, “psychological counseling centers” and private organizations such as the “VenSer” group, which uses the WhatsApp social network to attract its clients”the organizations for the defense of the rights of homosexuals specified in a statement.
In addition, “in their messages they try to convince people that the feeling of homosexual attraction can be absolutely taken away from you and then a session is offered by Skype, WhatsApp or phone call for 45 dollars for 50 minutes,” they pointed out.
As is the case of the organization “Exodus Latin America”which sponsors these therapies, conducts workshops, seminars, conferences and congresses in which it invites “young people who feel same-sex attraction and want to restore themselves.”
However, “other methods are usually much less rhetorical and more aggressive and can even apply torture, deprivation of liberty, forced medication and the so-called ‘corrective rape’, which threatens the physical and emotional integrity of people. “, they pointed out.
For its part, the NGO “Ruido en la red” stressed that “Mexico does not have an official record of the places where these actions are carried out, nor is it known exactly how many people were violated by ‘supposed’ mental health specialists. to try to overcome his homosexual impulses.
According to the website: https://www.homosensual.com, one of Mexico’s great debts in terms of human rights of LGBT+ people is the prohibition of the “Ecosig”, as the centers for the therapies of conversion.
