A court in Brazil has ruled that gay cure therapy is legal
Despite having one of the largest LGBT+ prides in the world, a court in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, has ruled that homosexuality is a disease and that so-called “gay cure” therapy is legal.
Judge Waldemar Claudio de Carvalho ruled that homosexuality can be treated as a disease and that conversion therapy as a means of curing it, is legal. The ruling has caused widespread condemnation and concern amongst LGBT+ people and their allies.
The judge overruled a 1999 resolution which outlawed therapists from treating homosexuality.
The appeal on that resolution was put forward by an evangelical Christian, Rozangela Justino, who was banned from practising after offering conversion therapies.
A number of high-profile organisations and people have rallied against the ruling saying that they will appeal the decision. Toni Reis, who heads the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Alliance, said the ruling was a step in the wrong direction plans to appeal at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Brazil’s psychology council says it would appeal the injunction also.
Speaking to the Guardian, David Miranda, a gay councillor in Rio de Janeiro said,
“This decision is a big regression to the progressive conquests that the LBGT community had in recent decades”.
Brazil also has one of the highest crime and murder rates against LGBT+ people in the world. In 2016 it was recorded that one LGBT+ person was killed every day in Brazil.
