French parliament bans conversion therapy

MP Laurence Vanceunebrock put it very short on Twitter: “There is nothing to cure”, she said. According to her, victims of the therapy were heard in the committee, wrote Cnews.

Conversion therapy is a name for a psychiatric practice claiming to “cure” a person’s sexual orientation by imposing heterosexuality or encouraging abstinence.

This method will become an offence from now. The punishment can be two years imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros. If the victim is a minor or under other circumstances, the penalty can grow to 45,000 euros. Also, a ban to practice a therapeutical job can be applied.

Not all members of parliament were in favour of the new law. According to the Republican Bruno Retailleau, the text does not bring fundamental legislative changes since “these practices are already prohibited by law.” Retailleau also said he would not always support sex change for minors since this is irreversible and might be regretted in the longer term. It should remain possible to tell youngsters all the consequences of a gender change.

Disqualification of parents

In the newspaper Le Figaro, the child psychiatrist Christian Flavigny responded very critically. He has published earlier about helping transgender children.

This text does not only ban therapy, Flavigny writes, but also “any questioning the wish of adolescents wanting to change their sex”. In the end, this ban means a “disqualification of parents and health professionals.”

The psychiatrist says everything mentioned in the text, like “humiliation sessions, hypnosis, electroshock treatments”, is already forbidden in France. He is not sure that “being transgender would be a proven situation” that does not leave room for any questioning. Although parents have the legal obligation to protect children, this law sometimes seems to make that an offence.