Lucas Hawrylak, a 26-year-old student from Berlin, launched a petition in mid-2018 to ban so-called conversion therapy in Germany. To date, he has collected more than 80,000 signatures — and has become the country's most well-known LGBT activist.
The petition calls on the German government to ban "conversion therapy," a practice that aims to "cure" gays and lesbians of their sexuality. Doctors use the practice to attempt to convince patients that they aren't gay, and urge them to try a heterosexual relationship. They use various techniques, including electroshock therapy, aimed at making patients develop negative associations with gay sex.
A 2017 study by the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency showed that 18.3 percent of Germans still regarded homosexuality as "unnatural," with 9.7 percent believing it to be "immoral."
Both the German Medical Association and the World Medical Association have stated that "homosexuality is not an illness and therefore requires no cure.”
“Any attempt to forcibly change a person's sexuality could "lead to personality and identity disorders, to depression and to self-harm," said Uwe Wetter, a former vice president of the Association of German Professional Psychologists, who has worked as a psychotherapist for more than 30 years.
Political success
Health Minister Jens Spahn, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union — himself openly gay — said in an interview with left-wing German daily taz earlier this year that he wanted to have "a government proposal agreed on by the summer" with his ministerial colleagues, stressing that he wanted to make the practice illegal as soon as possible.
Justice Minister Katarina Barley, of the center-left Social Democrats, supports Spahn's move and wants to jointly initiate a law "to prohibit pseudo-therapies."
And there appears to be cross-party support for the ban. Even the far-right AfD — which has previously called for the abolition of same-sex marriage — has rejected the practice. "We are open to a legal ban on conversion therapies," said the group's health policy spokesman, Axel Gehrke.
Should the ban come into place, Germany could become a forerunner in Europe. Currently, Malta is the only EU country with a nationwide ban; those who conduct the practice there face a fine of up to €10,000 ($11,350), or one year in prison.
Jens Brandenburg, the spokesman for LGBT issues for the Free Democratic Party, told DW that the prohibition should extend beyond Germany: "It's time for a Europewide ban on inhuman conversion therapies, especially for minors." Read more via DW