Mexican Senate passes bill to ban conversion practices after four-year impasse

Senators in Mexico have given their approval to a draft bill that proposes banning LGBT+ ‘conversion therapy’ nationwide, with a vote brought to the chamber four years after the legislation was first proposed.

The bill passed with 69 votes in favour, with 2 votes against and 16 abstentions.

Senators were encouraged to consider the bill following sustained engagement with civil society advocates campaigning on the issue, including Yaaj México and the Global Equality Caucus.

At GEC’s two-day forum in Mexico City in April – which included several events at the Senate Building – legislators and policymakers from across Mexico and Central America held a series of dialogues about how best to advance LGBT+ rights in the region, with legislative action to ban conversion practices a key focus of discussions.

These dialogues were attended by Senators Patricia Mercado and Martha Lucía Mícher, who have been key to driving progress on the federal bill.

Temístocles Villanueva – a deputy in the Mexico City Congress and a member of GEC’s Steering Committee – has also built political will to advance federal protections, having highlighted Mexico City’s local ban on ‘conversion therapy’ as a successful example for federal legislators to emulate.

Erick Iván Ortiz, who as Programmes Coordinator of GEC co-organised the Mexico City dialogues with Villanueva, said: “After four years of little progress on the conversion practices ban, I am delighted to see the bill has passed in the Mexican Senate. This is precisely the type of outcome we wanted to see from our Ban Conversion Therapy Now campaign – through a combination of advocacy and awareness, we have helped to build political consensus to a point where we are seeing significant progress on legislation.”

Yaaj México – the civil society organisation which includes survivors of ‘conversion therapy’ – also welcomed the news following years of campaigning on the issue, and in a statement commended senators for putting aside their differences in the name of human rights.

The bill now moves to the Chamber of Deputies. If approved, it will reform the federal Penal Code to prohibit anybody from attempting to change or suppress an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Global Equality Caucus’s campaign to Ban Conversion Therapy Now is mobilising lawmakers to support efforts to advance legislative bans on conversion practices. More information can be found here.