For a third of his life—from age 14 to 27—Brazilian Héder Bello, 37, lived in purgatory. He was engaged in a fierce fight against himself to stop being homosexual. He tried with all his might to eradicate the attraction he felt for other boys who in his own eyes, those of his family and his community made him the personification of sin, an abominable being. He suffered every conceivable modality of the call gay priest: exorcism sessions, fasting, flagellation, prayer sessions, religious retreats, Bible readings, supposed therapy with Christian psychologists, including some evangelical pastor… During those infernal years, the only purpose that guided his existence was to stop being gay. He was already studying Psychology at the Fluminense Federal University when a Christian psychologist offered him the definitive treatment: electroshock. Bello was so scared that it marked a definitive turning point in his life. This survivor of the so-called sexual reversal therapies is now dedicated to investigating and combating practices without a scientific basis that persist in Brazil.
Four Brazilian therapists have lost their license in the last five years for offering alleged gay priestsaccording to the newspaper Or Globetherapies that the Brazilian Council of Psychologists has prohibited since 1999. Already in 1990 the WHO eliminated homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses.
When the WHO made the historic decision, Bello was still a child growing up in an evangelical family in the rural area of Nova Friburgo (Rio de Janeiro). “He lived in an environment with many restrictions. “Everything revolved around the family, the church and the school,” says Bello in an interview via video call from Rio, where he lives. In his childhood universe, television, soap operas… everything outside the kingdom of God was considered diabolical. He grew up as a child dedicated to gospel music without knowing who Xuxa was, the idol of the Brazilian children of his generation, without sexual education, without knowing anyone LGTBI+ and without even hearing the word homosexual.
He left the bubble when he entered public school, already in adolescence. There they called him for the first time bichinha (sissy). She knew it was an insult even though she didn’t understand it.
The recent suicide of a lesbian and Bolsonaro influencer has put the spotlight on these false therapies. Weeks before his death, Karol Eller, 36, publicly announced that he was renouncing homosexuality after a religious retreat. “Family, triple your prayers for me (…). I renounced homosexual practice, vices, the desires of my flesh to live in Christ,” he proclaimed in a message to his 700,000 followers. The entire Bolsonaro clan and the far right sent their condolences to the family. One of his best friends was the deputy with the most votes in Brazil, the ultra-conservative Nikolas Ferreira, 27, so homophobic that he was fined for insulting deputy Duda Salabert in the chamber. trans and left.
With the tragedy, the false therapies to correct Sexuality returned to headlines and discussions. If anyone believed that gay priest was a thing of the past, it is deceived according to the forceful warning launched by the president of the Federal Council of Psychology, Pedro Paulo Bicalho, in a conversation with Agencia Brasil: “Right now, while we are doing this interview, many people are experiencing forms of incarceration to reverse his sexual orientation. There are hundreds of Karol Ellers out there suffering grievances, psychological torture, confinement, for the simple reason that his sexual orientation is considered wrong. Unfortunately, it is not an isolated case.”
another deputy trans, Erika Hilton has presented a bill for these false therapies to be punished as torture while Congress prepares to vote on another proposal that would legalize the gay priest.
Researcher Bello knows these types of rooms well. “The retreat to which she [la fallecida Eller] attended was very similar to one I did as a teenager. It was not specific to homosexuality issues,” she explains. They are coexistences designed to modify behaviors that fundamentalists consider a sin, be it attraction to people of the same gender or premarital sex.
The effects suffered by victims are multiple. “I think the worst thing is that you see yourself with hatred, you think you are evil. And then depression, anxiety, self-mutilation, eating disorders, suicide attempts can come…”, warns Bello.
He managed to reconcile with his sexual orientation, rebuild his life. Licensed as a psychologist, he focuses his professional career on investigating and combating the thousand procedures that lead to the ordeal he suffered. He participated in a book by the College of Psychologists based on the testimonies of 32 victims.
Sin for evangelicals
Brazil has always been conservative, but in recent decades the achievements of LGTBI+ Brazilians and progressives in general, such as equal marriage with the right to adoption, have coincided with the push of the evangelical Churches, which continue to gain followers and power. If the estimates are true, in 2030 evangelicals will surpass Catholics. In the evangelical universe, “the discourse that homosexuality is a sin is hegemonic and some Churches, not all, try to think of cure strategies,” explains Bello, who adds that there are also progressive denominations that welcome the LGTBI+ faithful. .
The investigator warns that the blame is shared. “It is not only the evangelical and Catholic Christian Churches that carry out programs of gay priest. There are many health professionals, education professionals… some families are victims because they are blamed, but others seek these procedures and force their children to undergo them.”
Brazilian fundamentalists did not give up on the official ban on gay priest and they try to fight on a particularly sensitive front. When Bello was still fighting against homosexuality, they tried to turn him into a fifth columnist. “A Christian psychologist told me: ‘Look, it would be very interesting if you could study Psychology and join the Psychology Council to try to change things from within.’ She rejected the proposal, which is also not exceptional. “There are Churches that sponsor students to do Psychology, it is a strategy,” she says.
Five years ago, a defender of false therapies against homosexuality ran in the elections to preside over the College of Psychologists. She didn’t win, but she got about 5,000 votes, says the Rio researcher.
Ironically, as the years went by and as part of his new life, Bello entered this organization, but with the mission of ensuring that the gay priests disappear and that professionals leave their religion and beliefs out of the consultation. A recent directive from the College of Psychologists along these lines has raised eyebrows. The Novo party has appealed it to the Supreme Court. The striking thing is that this liberal acronym does not even belong to the hard core of the powerful lobby evangelical parliamentarian.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#False #therapies #homosexuality #alive #Brazil