Statements opposing the proposed Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly resolution on conversion practices
Lesbians and gays, clinicians, parents and women’s rights advocates warn against deceptive “conversion practices” bans
Kurt Krickler
“A ban on conversion practices based on gender identity will harm homosexual youth who struggle with their sexual orientation and are led to identify as trans. Without safeguards or thorough professional assessment, they risk being put on a medicalised path to transition — effectively converting them into heterosexuals. This is, in fact, the worst form of conversion therapy.”
Kurt Krickler, co-founder of HOSI Vienna (1979), pioneer of the lesbian and gay rights movement, longtime activist in Austria and internationally, with key roles in ILGA, ILGA-Europe (Co-Chair 1997–2003) and the European Pride Organisers Association.
Bev Jackson
“Many trans activists and progressive parties portray the trans movement as a natural extension of lesbian and gay rights – something familiar and trustworthy. But this is false: the two are fundamentally incompatible. Homosexuality means same-sex attraction, not attraction to gender identity or self-perception. Gay people don’t advocate irreversible medical interventions on minors or demand that society prioritise feelings over facts. This resolution promotes an ideology that denies the material reality of sexual orientation and threatens legal and cultural protections for lesbians and gay men.
Bev Jackson, co-founder of the UK Gay Liberation Front (1970) and LGB Alliance (2019), founding supporter of LGB International (2024).
Frederick Schminke
“LGB people are not the same as TQ+ ideological movements. Conversion therapies were violent and torturous attempts to ‘fix’ us – not therapists questioning a young person’s wish to remove healthy body parts or reject their sex. We call for LGB voices to be heard. Institutions must stop ignoring the most alarming medicalisation of homosexuality in recent Western history.”
Frederick Schminke, co-founder of Alliance LGB France; Chair of LGB International, a global network defending the rights of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.
Faika El-Nagashi
“This is a transactivist Trojan horse. Lesbian and gay youth are used as moral cover, while their real needs—like support for internalised homophobia or hostile environments—are ignored in favour of medicalised transition. Those struggling with their sex need exploratory support, families need evidence-based care, and society needs honesty. Extending conversion therapy bans to gender identity does lasting harm in the name of human rights.”
Faika El-Nagashi, Director of Athena Forum, former Austrian MP, political scientist and human rights advocate. 30 years defending the rights of women and lesbians. Former activist with IGLYO, Programmes & Policy Officer at ILGA-Europe, board member of EL*C.
Marianne Driessen
“A law banning so-called ‘conversion therapies’, under the guise of protecting homosexuals, will have the opposite effect: lesbians and gay men are being erased by the cruellest, irreversible form of conversion therapy. This is already happening in countries with such laws, where parents of gender-confused children cannot find therapists who don’t affirm the belief that their child is ‘born in the wrong body’. Therapists and psychiatrists are increasingly avoiding this vulnerable group because it’s become too risky for their careers to do anything but affirm and prescribe a one-way ticket to the ‘trans train’.”
Marianne Driessen, education specialist based in the Netherlands; lifelong advocate for women’s sex-based rights; writer on women’s sports, lesbian visibility the reform of gender care for youth.
Fantastic Lesbians
“Proposing to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’ promotes a particularly egregious manifestation of homophobia by enforcing the lie that vulnerable young lesbians can become men through invasive and harmful surgical and chemical intervention.”
Fantastic Lesbians
Catherine Morin Le Sech
“Today, young women who are ‘detransitioning’ are realising that transitioning is equivalent to conversion therapy. Encouraging them down this path has deprived them of the opportunity to fulfil themselves as lesbians.”
Catherine Morin Le Sech, co-president of CQFD Lesbiennes Féministes, France
Lesbian Strength
“Trans-inclusive conversion therapy bans may discourage exploratory counselling that could help someone accept and live as a lesbian, potentially leaving medical transition as the only publicly supported path. We contend that this framing can conflate gender nonconformity with transgender identity, reducing space to affirm lesbian orientation without medical transition — and ultimately erasing lesbians as a distinct category.”
Lesbian Strength
Sally Wainwright
“I am horrified that the proposed measures are deeply lesbophobic, and will negatively impact lesbians, especially young lesbians. The ban on professionals discussing co-morbidities (such as autism, history of sexual abuse or care experience) which often contribute to lesbians’ belief that ‘living as a man’ would somehow alleviate their distress, will prevent them from dealing with their underlying issues and effectively lead to the enforced conversion of lesbians into ersatz men.”
Sally Wainwright, Lesbian Persistence
Di Winn
“Combining sexual orientation with gender identity is mutually exclusive and essentially lesbophobic. This proposed resolution, if adopted, is dangerous for Lesbians as it would further enshrine LGBT as a meaningful concept. The issues for lesbian, gay and bisexual people need dealt with separately, not under the ‘SOGI’ umbrella.”
Di Winn, Lesbians Aloud, amplifying Lesbian voices through the arts
Paula Boulton
“Lesbians in the UK have repeatedly argued against a ban on conversion therapy framed around gender identity. The most common conversion therapy happening to lesbians at the moment is the assumption that gender non-conforming girls are boys in the wrong body, who are subsequently led towards transition. This is not even mentioned.”
Paula Boulton, musician, playwright and lesbian rights activist; co-founder Lesbian Labour (2020) and Lesbian Fightback (2021), campaigning against lesbian erasure.
Lancashire Lesbians
“By treating sexual orientation and gender identity as a homogenous whole, the authors of this resolution have shown that they understand nothing about the current challenges and discriminations faced by lesbians across Europe. Nor do they recognise the immense harms that gender identity ideology has wreaked on lesbians and their wider community, particularly when it comes to the conversion therapy they claim to be aiming to prevent.”
Lancashire Lesbians
Lauren Levey
“Any reasonable ban should apply only to conversion therapy to change the sexual orientation of minors or nonconsenting adults; and any permitted procedures would need to be examined to rule out cruelty.”
Lauren Levey, Coordinator Lesbian Bill of Rights International
Gunda Schumann
“Bans on conversion therapy for gender-incongruent children and adolescents pave the way for medical transition, affecting 80% girls, most of whom are lesbian. Lesbian Action Center (LAZ) reloadedxx e.V. has declared war on the planned ‘conversion therapy ban’ by the Council of Europe, which only exacerbates the identity confusion of young lesbians and tomboys.”
Gunda Schumann, LAZ reloadedxx e.V. ⚢
Yonni Wilson
“The proposed conversion therapy ban, if extended to the area of gender identity, will potentially criminalise therapy for vulnerable, confused young lesbians & set them on a medical and possibly surgical pathway to ‘trans out the gay’ – the most harmful conversion therapy ever created.”
Yonni Wilson, LGB LibDem Forum UK
Contrary to what many may believe at first glance, the resolution on conversion practices presented to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) is not about protecting lesbian, gay or bisexual people from the abusive practices historically used to try to change their sexual orientation. This is not about electroshock treatment, aversion therapy or other horrific methods rightly condemned and outlawed in many member states. What may look like a well-meaning effort to ban coercive “conversion therapy” is, in reality, something very different.
Framed around gender identity and gender expression, this resolution risks doing real harm to the vulnerable young people it claims to protect; particularly those who are gender non-conforming and may simply grow up to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. It entrenches the idea that such children are “born in the wrong body” and should be put on a path toward irreversible medicalisation – a message that is not only unscientific but dangerous.
Across Europe, many lesbians and gay men are speaking out and urging their PACE delegates to vote No on this resolution. They are joined by a broad range of organisations and individuals – including advocacy groups Sex Matters, LGB Alliance UK, LGB International, Genspect, clinicians, parents and women’s and lesbian rights organisations – all warning against this attempt at ideological deception and overreach.
👉 Learn more about our campaign here.
