BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission said Wednesday it will ask all European Union nations to outlaw gay “conversion therapy” following a public campaign to ban the practice and just days before the annual Brussels Pride festival celebrating the LGTBQ+ community.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that “conversion practices” have “no place in our Union.” Increasing protections for LGTBQ+ citizens has been long promised by the EU executive since she took office in 2019.The EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights said in 2024 that one in four LGTBQ+ citizens polled had been subjected to the scientifically discredited practice to attempt to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. Reports of the practice were highest in Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Slovakia.The commission’s move was prompted by more than a million EU citizens petitioning for “a binding legal ban on conversion practices targeting LGBTQ+ citizens in the European Union.”
Just 10 of 27 EU nations either fully or partially outlaw conversion therapy, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - Europe.
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