Without discussion, Senate approves minute that prohibits conversion therapies

Mexico City. The Senate of the Republic approved this morning, without discussion, the minute that prohibits and penalizes the so-called “conversion therapies”, which are intended to force people to change their sexual identity.

The minutes were sent to the federal Executive for promulgation, thus closing a legislative process that began in 2018 when Morena senator Citlalli Hernández Mora presented, together with other legislators, the initiative on the matter.

A group from the LGBTI+ community celebrated the approval of this reform in the guest area of ​​the Senate chamber, with 77 votes in favor, four against and 15 abstentions, around three in the morning.

From her position, the president of the Commission for Gender Equality, Malú Micher, also expressed her approval for the endorsement of this reform that prevents what are known as conversion therapies, which are true “tortures.”

“It is a day of celebration for all people who have the right to love whoever they want and how they want, without any discrimination. There is nothing abnormal in this, there is nothing to cure, because it is not a disease. “I am proud to vote for this minute,” she added.

These are modifications to article 209 Quintus of the Federal Penal Code and the General Health Law, which impose two to six years in prison and a fine of one thousand to two thousand times the daily value of the Measurement and Update Unit ( UMA), to anyone who performs the so-called sexual conversion therapies, “since they represent practices that undermine the integrity of people.”

It was the last of 15 opinions that were voted on and with which the work of the ordinary period in the Senate of the Republic practically concluded. The afternoon session began at four-thirty in the afternoon on Thursday the 25th and concluded early this Friday.

The discussion of the minutes creating the Pension Fund for Wellbeing took more than nine hours and therefore the other 14 opinions were approved very quickly and without debate.

Likewise, with 59 votes in favor, 12 against and 23 abstentions, changes to the Sustainable Rural Development Law were approved, in order to declare the production of fertilizers in the country of social interest and public order.

During the session, it was agreed to disappear, as of the 30th of this month, 27 commissions not provided for in the Organic Law, five special commissions and four working groups established as of September 2018.

A session was called next Tuesday, in which the solemn session that was pending will be held to present the Mexican Navy Medal of Honor to the Secretary of the Navy, José Rafael Ojeda Durán, and the president of the board of directors, Ana Lilia Rivera , and the head of the Political Coordination Board, Ricardo Monreal, will present their work reports. This will close the work of the legislature.