The Portuguese parliament adopted on Friday at first reading several bills expanding the rights of LGBT + people, including the prohibition of “conversion therapy” aimed at changing gender identity or sexual orientation.
The ruling Socialist Party, which has an absolute majority in Parliament, has proposed a text providing for penalties of up to two years in prison for anyone found responsible for practices that “facilitate or promote” death “therapies”.
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Similar bills have also been submitted by other parties and the various texts will now have to be merged into a single law before its final adoption.
The Parliament has also adopted texts in favor of gender self-determination in a school context.
THE “conversion therapies” continue to be practiced in Europe, alerted the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatovic in a report published in February.
2% of LGBTI people have undergone “conversion therapy”
The Strasbourg-based human rights organization has urged member states to put an end to these practices, which can rely on different methods such as electroshock, taking hormones and rituals of exorcism, often “legally and usually under a medical or religious pretext”.
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In the European Union, at least “2% of LGBTI people have suffered such practices and 5% have been offered a conversion”practices that can cause “depression, anxiety, self-hatred, suicidal thoughts”according to the same report.
Malta was in 2016 the first European country to ban them in 2016. Since then, several other States such as Germany, Greece, Albania or France have also legislated in this direction, while in other States projects bans are under consideration.
