A Brazilian judge has struck down a
1999 decision banning therapies that attempt to alter the sexual
orientation of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
Waldemar de Carvalho, a federal judge
in the capital of Brasilia, sided with an evangelical Christian and
psychologist whose license was revoke in 2016 for offering
“conversion” therapy in defiance of a 1999 decision by the
Federal Council of Psychology that banned such treatments.
According to the
Guardian, Rozangela Justino in a 2009 interview said that she
viewed homosexuality as a “disease.”
“I feel directed by God to help
people who are homosexual,” she told the Folha de Sao Paulo
newspaper.
The Federal Council of Psychology
criticized the ruling in a statement, saying that it “opens the
dangerous possibility of the use of sexual reversion therapies.”
The group said it would appeal the decision.
“There is no way to cure what is not
a disease,” Council president Rogerio Giannini told
the Guardian.
“It is not a serious, academic debate. It is a debate connected
to religious or conservative positions.”
Evangelical Christian groups opposed to
LGBT rights have seen steady political gains in Brazil and routinely
protest television shows that feature gay or transgender characters.
David Miranda, an openly gay councilor in Rio de Janeiro, told the
Guardian that “Brazil is suffering a conservative wave”
after decades of increasing LGBT rights.