On Thursday, the cantonal parliament approved a new Health Act which includes a ban on therapies aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity. After examining around forty amendments, the council’s members finally approved the bill by 106 votes to 21. All political groups, with the exception of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, were satisfied with the outcome. Conversion therapies are considered “discriminatory, cruel, inhumane and degrading by the United Nations”, said Mathias Reynard, head of the canton Valais Department of Health. The Centre Party meanwhile supported the ban, but said it would have preferred the issue to be “settled at national level”. The Swiss People’s Party, for its part, felt that this article of the law, concerning a practice which is marginal or even “non-existent” in Valais, had no place in the law on health. + Read more: gay conversion therapies continue to take their toll in Switzerland Reynard pointed out that the ban came in response to ...
