The Spanish parliament is considering a bill that would amend the penal code to penalise the practice of so-called 'conversion therapies'.

According to the draft law, anyone who “applies or practises acts, methods, programmes, techniques or procedures of aversion or conversion, intended to modify, repress, eliminate or deny their sexual orientation, sexual identity or gender expression, affecting their bodily integrity or physical or mental health or seriously undermining their moral integrity”, can be sentenced to prison for between six months and two years.

The bill has sparked a debate within Spanish society on the use of the term 'conversion therapy', raising concerns about the potential criminalisation of legitimate religious activities, such as prayer, spiritual accompaniment, and voluntary pastoral counselling.

FEREDE: “A clear violation of religious freedom”

The Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE) has sent a letter to the Director General of Religious Freedom of the Spanish government, Mercedes Murillo, expressing a “deep concern” about the draft law.

The letter denounces the ambiguity of the term 'conversion therapy'. For FEREDE, “acts of any nature” in the definition shows a “lack of legal rigour” which could lead to abusive interpretations of the law.

“We agree with the condemnation of any coercive or degrading practice, but we consider it unacceptable to confuse such interventions with free forms of spiritual accompaniment”, says Carolina Bueno, executive secretary of FEREDE.

FEREDE states that its churches do not practise therapies that aim to change people's sexual orientation, but it defends that “in a free and pluralistic society, citizens should be able to seek spiritual support in accordance with their beliefs, as long as there is no coercion or harm”.

Criminalising such spiritual practices “would be a clear violation of religious freedom”, adds the letter.

Exclusion of non-coercive religious practices

FEREDE questions the need for a penal reform. There are already sufficient administrative mechanisms, says the evangelical entity, and any serious infraction is already punished under the current Penal Code.

Therefore, the organisation has announced that it will actively work to prevent the passing of the bill.

If the draft law is passed, the evangelical entity asks that “the text be drafted with the utmost legal rigour” and that “it be revised to ensure a clear definition of ‘conversion therapies’, restricting them to cases of coercion or real violence”.

The entity also calls for the bill to “expressly exclude non-coercive religious practices and to respect the right of parents to educate their children according to their convictions”.

Spanish Evangelical Alliance statement

The Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE) also issued a statement recently, rejecting the draft law, and claiming that the term ‘conversion therapies’ is an “ideological construct” designed to “generate rejection”.

The AEE stresses that the bill is based on a “distortion of the concept” and use pejorative language to project an image of “manipulation and torture”. The reality in Spain, nevertheless, is that such practices are exceptional and are already punished under existing legislation and do not need additional legal reinforcement.

According to the AEE, in a democratic society, the support given to those who wish to transition according to their transgender identity should be equally available to those who seek to reverse that process. But the draft law, the AEE says, establishes a “morally tutelary” model that nullifies personal decision-making and opens the door to stigmatisation.

The Evangelical Alliance calls on parliamentarians to vote on this proposal “in good conscience”, because “this is not a matter that should be governed by ideology, but by the deepest and most universal sense of democracy”.

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