The "conversion therapies", soon banned in France? Also known as "sexual reorientation therapies", these practices that claim to change the sexual orientation of young gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals to "reorient" them towards heterosexuality have been the object of an information mission since this summer. parliamentary.
At its head, Bastien Lachaud, elected from the insubordinate France of Seine-Saint-Denis and Laurence Vanceunebrock-Mialon, LREM deputy of the Allier. The two elected intend to submit a bill by early 2020, with a view to their prohibition. This text will evolve in the coming months would punish any practice that alters the physical or mental health of a person of two years in prison and 30 000 euros fine, according to France Inter.
For now, the project is still in the boxes. The mission on "Practices purporting to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity" begins in this first week of September with hearings at the Assembly, including LGBT associations, the CNEF (Council national evangelicals of France) but also victims of these controversial practices.
"We take the Bible at the foot of the letter"
More prevalent in the United States - 700 000 people aged 18 to 59 have already been affected, according to a study by the Williams Institute, an American research organization - these "therapies" remain difficult to quantify in France. And even if they do not implement medical means (electroshock, hormone injections ...) as is the case on the other side of the Atlantic, LGBT activists have sounded the alarm for years about the psychological consequences that can result these methods. Already in 2017, a petition had been launched, calling for the ban of such practices in France. It currently has more than 92,000 signatures.
Promised especially in France by Christian and Evangelical Protestant groups, these "therapies" are based on obscure "courses" or "seminars" spanning several days, mixing groups of words, readings, prayers and sometimes leading to total isolation of the individual. According to Anthony Favier, president of the Catholic LGBT association, David & Jonathan interviewed by France 24, this phenomenon has increased with the explosion of the evangelical movement in France in recent years. "It is a modern movement on the form but very conservative on the bottom, there is no interpretation of the religious texts, one takes the Bible with the foot of the letter, in particular as regards the condemnation of the homosexuality".
"No manipulation steps"
Two Christian associations are particularly in the viewfinder of the deputies: the movements "Courage" and "Torrents de vie", whose "dissolution" could be considered, according to Laurence Vanceunebrock-Mialon. On their brochures, no therapeutic work is explicitly mentioned. "Torrents de vie", however, explains on his website that "confusions and breaks in our relational and sexual identity lead us into sin and make us incapable of loving".
His "program" aims to "help homosexual Christians, who feel uncomfortable in their identity, to find resources in Jesus". For 300 euros, the person can follow a week of "restoration" in the countryside, as indicated in one of its prospectus. "Seminars that no longer say their names, but which, under the mantle, are well known to be related to 'conversion therapies'," says the elected LREM, with Têtu.
"These stays are offered to adult believers and volunteers to begin a reflection on their sexual identity.There is no manipulation," defends France 24, the National Council of Evangelicals of France (CNEF), which among its members, the association "Torrents de vie". And to ensure: "We can not stop someone from thinking about his identity, if he wants to do it".
"Deadly therapies"
But behind the polish benevolent, these seminars would be the theater of a "destructive religious propaganda", estimates for its part the association of professionals of psychotherapy, PsyGay. "These movements consider that homosexuality would lead to death and would be synonymous with vice, perversion. It is not homo killing, but homophobia. These 'therapies' are then just as deadly. Especially since many young homosexuals are already in a huge moral suffering, "says Joseph Agostini, secretary of the association at France 24.
If such a project to penalize these courses meets already some enthusiasm with LGBT associations, some argue that French law, unlike that of other countries, would already be sufficiently protective. In an article published in Liberation, Jimmy Charruau, doctor of public law, specifies that the French legislative arsenal is already "rich of incriminations likely to condemn these treatments (acts of barbarism, violence, moral harassment ...)", and can " protect victims of drift from groups (sectarian, religious) ".
>> To read also: Therapies to "cure" homosexuality: a disturbing legal vacuum in France
Remains the importance of raising awareness as much as possible of "potentially frail young people" on the "dangers" of measures claiming to "cure" homosexuality, further emphasizes the PsyGay association. If the bill succeeds, France would join the fifteen American states (Maine, New York ...), which have already condemned these practices, as the island of Malta in 2016. A sign that other countries could, at in turn, align their legislation: the European Parliament voted, in 2018, a text calling each Member State to ban these controversial practices.