Equality will investigate the dioceses that teach sexual conversion courses and workshops for LGTBI people

Precisely, the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, met this Tuesday with the president of the entity, Saúl Castro, who conveyed to her the details of the complaint that she filed with the Ministry of Equality, through the General Directorate for the Real and effective equality for LGTBI people.

Specifically, according to the complaint consulted by Europa Press, ‘It is not therapy’ has denounced a total of seven dioceses: Madrid, Getafe, Alcalá de Henares, Barcelona, ​​Sigüenza-Guadalajara, Valencia and Málaga. Thus, the Ministry is going to analyze its content “to study the actions to promote within the framework of its powers.”

Sanctions of 200 to 150,000 euros

In this sense, the department headed by Ana Redondo has recalled that the law for the real and effective equality of trans people and for the guarantee of the rights of LGTBI people prohibits for the first time “the practice of methods, programs and therapies of aversion, conversion or counterconditioning, in any form, intended to modify the sexual orientation or identity or gender expression of people, even if they have the consent of the interested person or their legal representative.

Likewise, he added that the rule also establishes sanctions ranging from 200 to 150,000 euros and which entail the prohibition of receiving public aid, depending on the seriousness of the facts. Minor infractions contemplate, among others, the use or emission of humiliating expressions, punishable by a warning or a fine of 200 to 2,000 euros.

On the other hand, it has explained that serious infractions contemplate the failure to remove vexatious expressions on websites or social networks by information society service providers, as long as, having asked them to remove it, they do not do so. . They will be sanctioned with a fine of 2,001 to 10,000 euros.

Finally, very serious infractions, punishable by a fine of 10,001 to 150,000 euros, include the promotion or practice of aversion, conversion or counterconditioning methods, programs or therapies with the aim of modifying sexual orientation, gender identity or sexual characteristics.

The general director for real and effective equality for LGTBI people, Julio del Valle, highlighted, at the end of the meeting, the need to “open a social debate about what conversion therapies mean, which deny the identity of people.” and/or their sexual orientation. Del Valle has insisted on the seriousness of the damage caused by this type of therapy on LGTBI people: “They can have psychological consequences throughout their lives, affecting their emotional-sexual life,” he pointed out.

Dioceses reject conversion therapies

Last week, the Archdiocese of Madrid showed its rejection of sexual conversion therapies, “in line with the position of the Vatican”, although it pointed out that they had not yet received any complaints.

In turn, the Diocese of Getafe also positioned itself against these practices in a statement published last Wednesday on its website and explained that the complaint includes “talks from people who spoke about their conversion to faith.”

For its part, the Archbishopric of Barcelona has also distanced itself from the organization of these initiatives, and in a statement dated January 4, it assured its “opposition to these conversion therapies” and specified that these initiatives are “presumably linked to “two private companies that have no connection with the archdiocese.”