Conversion Therapy Now iIlegal In Germany
A new law was proposed from the Christian Democrats in February 2020 that prohibits conversion therapy defined as "all therapy carried out on human beings which are aimed at changing or suppressing sexual orientation of self-perceived gender identity". The law is already in use since June 2020.
Surgery, gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments “aimed at expressing a person’s self-perceived gender identity” do not fall into this category and are, therefore, not prohibited. Conversion therapy for underage people is completely illegal, but adults are permitted to get treatment in a conversion therapy if they wish to undergo this kind of therapy. This has to be with complete self choice and without others influence. Nevertheless, conversion therapy will be shown as an illegal treatment in public advertisements or not advertised at all.
The government explained that in a conversion therapy is “a considerable risk for the persons concerned to suffer health damage, for instance, to suffer from depression and anxiety, to lose sexual feelings completely, up to an increased suicidal tendency.”
Nine men and women, who went through the experience of living like the opposite sex for a certain amount of time, "offered their personal histories as cautionary tales in order to inform the Supreme Court of the often tragic unintended consequences that occur when males attempt to live as if they were females, and females as males."
“This emerging group of people with gender identity issues are suffering from emotional, psychological, or social identity discomfort far deeper than new pronouns can rectify. Courts should not ignore that fact,” explained the group.
The German government, on the other hand, argued that "despite a lack of medical indication, organizations offering conversion therapy continue to carry out conversion experiments on people, usually for religious or ideological reasons, and in doing so, they accept harm to those they treat."
In 2019, the leader of the Protestant German "Bibelbund" Michael Kotsch said: “Anyone who dares to provide pastoral care to a homosexual or transgender person seeking change will be considered a criminal in Germany in the future.”
Source: Life Site News, Gesundheitsministerium DE
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