It has been a sad week for Brazil’s LGBT+ community, with regressive ‘gay-cure therapy’ being re-legalised.
Such offensive therapies were outlawed in Brazil way back in 1999, but the clock has been turned back sharply.
Judge Waldemar Claudio de Carvalho has reinstated the law, apparently based on the easily-dismantled belief of homosexuality being a ‘disease’.
The ruling follows a ‘conservative wave’ in the South American Country, only one week after a bank was forced to cancel an LGBT+ art exhibition due to protesting from evangelical Christian groups.
Brazilian soap operas featuring gay characters have recently caused controversy in the country and have led to complaints.
Judge de Carvalho made this decision after ruling in favour of Evangelical Christian psychologist Rozangela Justino.
Justino was stripped of her licence back in 2016 after advising her patients to seek religious guidance to ‘cure’ their ‘disease’ of homosexuality.
Justino believes she is directed by God to help ‘cure’ homosexual people.
Speaking with The Guardian, one of the very few openly gay politicians in Brazil, David Miranda, spoke out against this worrying step backwards:
This decision is a big regression to the progressive conquests that the LBGT community had in recent decades.
Like various countries in the world, Brazil is suffering a conservative wave.
The Federal Council of Psychology has promised to fight against this ruling.
The prohibition of gay conversion treatment has previously battled multiple legal challenges over the years, and the council appears confident this regressive move can be whacked back into the stone age where it belongs.
Council president Rogério Giannini has made the following statement:
There is no way to cure what is not a disease.
It is not a serious, academic debate, it is a debate connected to religious or conservative positions.
Our thoughts are with the LGBT+ community of Brazil as they suffer this cruel and deeply disappointing injustice.
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.