‘Gay cure’: what it is and why it was suspended in Brazil – 06/23/2023 – Equilíbrio

Discussions about the so-called “gay cure” surfaced because of a letter from Rose Miriam, mother of three children by Gugu Liberato, sent a few years ago to the presenter, who died in 2019.

“Angel, I know your sexual preference is different. But this type of sexual behavior of yours does not come from your spirit, it is not yours”, wrote Rose, proposing to promote “this definitive change of God, praying and fasting”.

You can clear, below, some of your doubts on the subject.

What is “gay healing”?

It is the best known jargon to refer to treatments whose objective is to convert LGBTQIA+ people to heterosexuality, usually offered by Christian psychologists. Other terms used are “sexual reorientation”, “sexual reversal” and “sexual conversion”.

Some religious institutions and support groups claim they have the right to use their religious freedom to help people change their sexual orientation.

Homosexuality is not a disease

No. On May 17, 1990, the WHO (World Health Organization) removed “homosexuality” (the suffix “ism” refers to disease in medicine) from the official list of mental disorders.

Before the change, homosexuality (the suffix “dade” means behavior) was on the same level as disorders such as pedophilia. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association banned homosexuality from its list of disorders.

In Brazil, the same measure was taken before the approval of the WHO by the Federal Council of Medicine in 1985, after pressure from the Gay Group of Bahia.

Is “gay healing” allowed in Brazil?

Since 1999, Brazilian psychologists are obliged to comply with Resolution 001 of the Federal Council of the category, which prohibits sexual reversion therapies in LGBTQIA+ people. It is not possible to cure a disease that does not exist, explains the entity.

The service was legally provided in Brazil from September 2017 to April 2019, until Minister Cármen Lúcia, of the STF, barred the practice through an injunction that met a request from the Federal Council of Psychology.

Why was the “gay cure” allowed in Brazil from 2017 to 2019?

In 2017, the Federal Court of the Federal District granted an injunction that allowed psychologists to treat LGBTQIA+ people as patients and perform “sexual reversion” therapies, without suffering censorship or sanctions from the Federal Council of Psychology.

The decision responded to a request from Christian psychologists, who took advantage of a loophole left by the WHO. Even after having depathologized homosexuality in 1990, the entity had left open the possibility for people who did not feel comfortable with their homosexuality to seek treatment — for the WHO, these people had an egodystonic sexual orientation.

In 2019, WHO removed egodystonia from the status of psychic disorder in the 11th version of the ICD (International Statistical Classification of Diseases). That same year, Carmen Lúcia suspended the 2017 decision of the Federal Court of the Federal District.

What methods are usually used in these ‘treatments’?

Conditioning and repression techniques, chemical and electrical aversion therapies and even exorcism, among other pseudoscientific practices.

British physician Christian Jessen tested six of these methods in the documentary “The Truth About Gay Cure”, released in 2014. At the end of the experiment, he re-tested his sexual orientation and found that he was still “100% gay”.