Mexico City Bans Conversion Therapy

In the wake of Mexico City's decision to outlaw conversion therapy, Maeve Korengold writes about the harm caused by the practice. This article also discusses the difference in quality of life for LGBTQ+ communities in different countries, as the USA is yet to completely outlaw the so-called "therapy". Learn more about the experiences of those forced into such programmes, and better understand the trauma they suffered.

Conversion therapy, also referred to as reparative therapy, is the practice of trying to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The methods used to accomplish this range from electric shock therapy and water torture to talk therapy and religious intervention. Over 700,000 LGBTQ people have been exposed to some type of conversion therapy, and it is estimated that about 80,000 LGBTQ youth will experience it in the future.

On July 24th, 2020, members of Mexico City’s regional congress voted to pass a bill outlawing these practices. Medical practitioners who are caught attempting to change the identity of an LGBTQ person now face up to 5 years in jail. It is unclear whether this ban applies to those over 18 or if only minors are protected. In the United States, for example, there are only 20 states where conversion therapy is limited. The District of Columbia is the only state to outlaw the practice for adults. This decision made Mexico City the first municipality in Mexico to limit attempts to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

In some ways, Mexico is considered more LGBTQ-friendly than other countries. Although, proportionally, Mexicans are more Christian than Americans, there is much greater separation between church and state in Mexico, where it is reportedly “politically unacceptable to promote a religious rationale for policy decisions”. The marriages of same-sex couples have been legally recognized throughout Mexico since 2010, and sodomy was decriminalized in 1871, more than 100 years before it was in the United States.

In 2003, the Mexican Chamber of Deputies passed a law that “included sexual orientation as a protected category, established a new agency to enforce the antidiscrimination law, and developed a national anti-homophobia campaign.” That being said, this law is not always enforced. State actors have used violence against LGBTQ people without punishment. The law isn’t always implemented in Mexico, but it does not condone legal discrimination of sexual minorities.

Enrique Torre Molina, a Mexican LGBTQ activist, says: “Over the past few years I've come to know many — too many — stories of LGBTQ+ people who survived ‘conversion therapy’ and torture, or who have stepped away from their families who believed they could and should ‘change.’ It's exciting to witness this historic win. Our community deserves love and respect.”

Erika Venadero was fifteen years old when she began to feel romantically attracted to women. When she went to seek guidance from a family friend, he signed her up to, what she thought would be, a religious retreat. The “retreat” later turned out to be conversion therapy. Venadero left her hometown of Guadalajara in a van with 14 other teenagers to a wooded area four hours away. When they arrived there, they had all of their belongings taken and were sent to bed after being separated into three groups. For all three days of the “retreat”, the group was not allowed to shower, change their clothes, or be alone. They weren’t given any food. Erika was forced to list her actions and feelings that were deemed “sinful” and kneel and shout that “gay people are disgusting, sinful, and deserve eternity in hell”. She says the organizers believe “that because I was a lesbian, I wasn’t a real woman”.

When she returned to Guadalajara, the drivers of the van physically assaulted Erika before letting her exit. They “started to touch [her] without asking for permission and, in turns, abused [her] sexually.” They “justified themselves” by saying that she was now a “real woman” after her experience at the conversion camp. Vedandero says the drivers spoke as if it was an “initiation ritual.”

Jazziel Bustamante is a transgender woman and another conversion therapy survivor. She was very involved in her local church, and was fifteen when she started to wear women’s clothing. However, Bustamante continued to present herself as a young man when she went to church, and taught younger children how to pray. When another volunteer at her church saw her standing outside at a bus stop wearing a skirt and make-up, she was asked to stop teaching the next day.

After this, Bustamante began to attend her friend’s evangelical Bible study group, where she was not accepted as a woman and was told that she must “live like a man as God intended.” She went to conversion therapy prayer sessions where the congregation “prayed for her soul” every week for a number of months. Bustamante says that this led her to feel guilty for being transgender. She once had an anxiety attack and cut all of her hair off in front of her mirror because she “[believed] that [she] was going to feel good as a boy”. Her feelings of “sin and guilt” stayed greatly ingrained.

The idea of conversion therapy is based on the idea that being queer is an imbalance that needs to be “fixed” or “cured”. Despite this, all major medical associations agree that LGBTQ identities are normal variations of sexuality and not a human flaw, and the American Psychiatric Association declared in 1973 that being gay is not a mental illness. The United Nations called for a total ban of conversion therapy in June.

The APA has also published studies that show that conversion therapy is unlikely to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Instead, it often leaves patients with self-hatred, depression, and anxiety. A study by San Francisco State University showed that queer youth who experienced rejection from their families or caregivers are 8.4 times more likely to attempt suicide, 5.9 times more likely to experience high levels of depression, and 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs. According to the Trevor Project, an American nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, few practices hurt LGBTQ youth more than attempts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

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