The European Commission seeks to ban gay 'conversion therapy'

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission said Wednesday it will ask all European Union nations to outlaw gay “conversion therapy” following a public campaign to ban the practice and just days before the annual Brussels Pride festival celebrating the LGTBQ+ community.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that “conversion practices” have “no place in our Union.” Increasing protections for LGTBQ+ citizens has been long promised by the EU executive since she took office in 2019.

The EU's Agency for Fundamental Rights said in 2024 that one in four LGTBQ+ citizens polled had been subjected to the scientifically discredited practice to attempt to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. Reports of the practice were highest in Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Slovakia.

The commission's move was prompted by more than a million EU citizens petitioning for “a binding legal ban on conversion practices targeting LGBTQ+ citizens in the European Union.”

Just 10 of 27 EU nations either fully or partially outlaw conversion therapy, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - Europe.

In 2016, Malta was the first EU nation to outlaw any attempt to change the sexual orientation of gay people. Since, France too has banned it and authorized jail time and fines for anyone using the practice to attempt to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ+ people.

“Conversion practices are built on a lie, the lie that LGBTQ+ people need to be fixed, that there is something wrong with who they are. And there is, of course, nothing to fix, there is nothing to cure, and there is no one to change,” said Hadja Lahbib, the European commissioner for equality. “You cannot torture away a person’s identity, and you cannot legislate it away. And yet these practices continue, unfortunately."

Tens of thousands are expected to march Saturday across Brussels, the institutional heart of the EU, as the city holds its 30th annual parade for LGTBQ+ rights and culture.