German Ralis, a federal lawmaker from Jalisco representing the Citizens Movement (MC), this week presented an initiative in the Chamber of Deputies to outlaw sexual orientation conversion therapies in Mexico.
“These types of therapies lack any scientific justification and are a result of the homophobia that exists in this country,” Ralis said in a press release.
In his missive, Ralis listed a number of international organizations that have denounced these kinds of “treatments.” They include the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization, the U.N. General Assembly and Mexico’s Human Rights Commission.
Ralis, a former Tlaquepaque councilor, said the type of therapies being used in Mexico to “alter” a person’s sexual orientation run the gamut from psychological sessions and the administration of hormones, to forcing patients to engage in sexual relations with someone of the opposite gender. “In these open times, it is important that homosexuality becomes accepted as a natural variation of human sexuality,” Ralis said.