Abstract
The present article analyzes some elements concerning the current clash in the Brazilian legal field in relation to “conversion therapies”. A brief overview of the pathologization of dissident sexualities is presented initially and then this process is described especially in relation to homosexuality. After this, the paper presents a description and historical analysis of sexual orientation reversion therapies, especially in the USA and Brazil, followed by the discussion of religiously based “conversion therapies” and the confrontation of their proponents with professional counseling in these countries. Finally, aspects related to the discourses present in the recent Popular Action against Resolution 001/1999 of the CFP are analyzed, pointing out some elements for the analysis of the coping strategies of the dissemination of these therapies. Among them, the following stand out: the need to deconstruct the arguments of individual freedom used by proponents of these therapies; the problematization of the use of “science” as central argument by the class councils in this juridical attack, since such practices were supported historically by “scientific” arguments of its time; and the need to focus on the ethical issues surrounding such practices, based on the concept of secularity, given that legal and scientific discourses have been shown in many historical moments inseparable from conceptions of religious basis.
Conversion Therapies; Depathologization; Homosexuality; Sexual and Gender Minorities