Conversion practices cause lasting harm as Switzerland considers ban

Conversion practices intended to change a person’s sexual orientation can cause lasting suffering, SRF reports, as Switzerland’s Federal Council signals openness to a nationwide ban but says existing laws are sufficient.

Adrian Stiefel knew at 14 that he was attracted to men. In his free-church community, homosexuality was treated as an illness, and he believed God could not love him as he was. For a decade, he tried to change his sexual orientation through prayer and other measures.

At 19, he travelled to the United States for a conversion therapy. During a week of exorcisms, practitioners sought to identify and cast out what they called the “homosexual power”. Stiefel says he appeared to choose the treatment voluntarily, but felt his freedom was severely limited. “If the alternative is losing your family, your community and the salvation of your soul, then there is very little freedom of choice,” he said.

Stiefel says the experience left him lonely and sad, and for a long time he struggled to form close relationships. He also blamed himself when the church and God did not “heal” him. He eventually left his free-church community in his mid-20s, but it took another 10 to 15 years to move on from its beliefs. He later found he could live openly as a gay man and remain religious.

Practices reported across faiths

Conversion measures are not limited to Christian communities, according to Philippe Gilbert of the Intercantonal Information Centre for Questions of Faith, a Geneva-based centre. A study by the centre found such practices in Jewish, Muslim and esoteric communities as well.

The scale of the practices in Switzerland is difficult to establish. According to the Swiss LGBTIQ+ Panel at the University of Zurich, almost one in 10 gay people and around one in seven trans people have encountered conversion measures.

Attempts to “cure” homosexuality date back at least to the 19th century, when departures from heterosexual or assigned gender norms were treated as illnesses, according to a report by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies. Methods cited in the report include behavioural therapy, pills and hormones, electric shocks, sterilisation and the transplantation of a heterosexual man’s testicles into a gay man.

Federal Council has not proposed a new law

Stiefel now leads the LGBTI unit of the Reformed Church in Geneva. He says some religious communities have become more open, but may still expect queer people not to live out their sexuality. He considers that “almost even more cruel” than an outright rejection of homosexuality.

The Federal Council has recently condemned conversion measures and signalled for the first time that it is open to a nationwide ban. However, it said in a report that existing laws are sufficient and that a new national law is not necessary. Stiefel supports a ban, saying legislation would also set a social norm by signalling what society accepts.