The European Commission said Wednesday it will ask EU nations to outlaw gay “conversion therapy,” a move it tied to broader protections for LGBTQ+ people and to the calendar surrounding Brussels Pride. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the practice—described in the commission’s framing as “conversion practices”—has “no place in our Union,” as the EU executive renewed a long-standing push for stronger safeguards that it has promised since she took office in 2019.
The commission’s action comes days before the annual Pride festival in Brussels, which is set to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community with its 30th parade. Tens of thousands are expected to march Saturday across Brussels, the institutional heart of the EU.
In support of the initiative, the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights reported in 2024 that one in four LGBTQ+ citizens polled had been subjected to the scientifically discredited practice used to attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The agency said reports were highest in Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Slovakia.
The European Commission said its move was prompted by a petition campaign in which more than a million EU citizens asked for “a binding legal ban on conversion practices targeting LGBTQ+ citizens in the European Union.” That campaign reflected the EU executive’s effort to move from incremental protections to a more uniform legal approach across member states.
The commission’s announcement also highlights the uneven legal landscape within the bloc. According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association Europe, only 10 of the EU’s 27 countries had fully or partially outlawed conversion therapy at the time of the commission’s move.
The Associated Press reported that Malta was the first EU nation to outlaw any attempt to change the sexual orientation of gay people in 2016. The report said France has also banned the practice and authorized jail time and fines for those who use it to try to change sexual orientation or gender identity.
Hadja Lahbib, the European commissioner for equality, said in response to the commission’s decision that “conversion practices are built on a lie, the lie that LGBTQ+ people need to be fixed, that there is something wrong with who they are.” She added, “And there is, of course, nothing to fix, there is nothing to cure, and there is no one to change,” and said, “You cannot torture away a person’s identity, and you cannot legislate it away. And yet these practices continue, unfortunately.”