COC Netherlands wants a legal ban on so-called ‘homogenization’ before the end of this year. The interest group does not want to wait for the results of a new study, which will not be ready until 2022. Other countries already have a legal ban or are working on it, the COC says. “This quackery should no longer be tolerated.”
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COC Netherlands is thus responding to a letter to parliament from the outgoing ministers Hugo de Jonge (VWS) and Ferd Grapperhaus (Justice and Security). The ministers wrote yesterday that for the time being there will be no legal ban on so-called conversion therapies in strictly religious church communities.
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A large parliamentary majority wants this to be made illegal. An investigation is now underway into ‘further legal options’ to curb the practices. The results will not come until between June and October next year, which means that a ban decision will be made to a new cabinet.
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Holiday Camps
The ministers responded to a report by research bureaus Ateno and Bureau Beke about the practices. This shows that in the Netherlands fifteen organizations or persons organize activities – including holiday camps, seminars and workshops – in which a non-heterosexual orientation is problematized and where attempts are made to ‘resolve’ this.
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The sessions for ‘homogenization’ cause a lot of psychological damage, sometimes resulting in depression and suicide. At least 68 people had to deal with ‘healing therapies’, often for more than a year. The researchers suspect that this is the tip of the iceberg. According to foreign research, about 3 to 5 percent of the LGBTI community is affected by this.
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Since the publication of the study, a majority of the House has called for a ban. That takes longer. “It is not yet possible to determine how the prevention and countering of gay conversion can be achieved most successfully,” the ministers wrote to the House of Representatives.
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Quote
We’ve waited long enough. That legal ban just has to come
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Code of Conduct
The government does want to take some measures to counter the controversial therapies ‘more vigorously’. This will create support centers for LGBTI people. In the meantime, a ‘code of conduct’ will also be set up “with which a standard can be set with regard to sexual identity in relation to religion and belief.”
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COC Netherlands has been arguing with religious LGBTI organizations such as LKP and Maruf for years for a legal ban. Ten political parties promised in March in COC’s Rainbow Agreement to settle this quickly. ,,We have waited long enough”, COC chairman Astrid Oosenbrug responds to the letter to parliament. “That legal ban just has to come into effect now. I want the government to set a crystal clear standard that this kind of quackery is no longer tolerated. It is a myth that being LGBTI can be ‘cured’. You are good as you are.”
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Another research report that the cabinet sent to the House yesterday shows that countries such as Malta, Austria and parts of the United States and Australia already have a legal ban on ‘homogenization’. The United Kingdom, Germany and Canada are also working on such a ban.
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