The European Commission has validated the petition of the ACT association, which collected more than one million signatures in favor of banning ‘conversion therapies’. It must now respond by 17 May 2026.
A step further toward banning conversion therapies on a European scale! The European Commission has recognized the validity of a citizen petition on this issue that gathered more than one million signatures, the threshold required for its examination by the institutions. In total, 1,128,063 signatures were registered on Monday, 17 November, two years after the procedure began. Concretely, this obliges the European Commission to provide a response within six months, i.e., by 17 May 2026, the date of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
“We managed to accelerate the timetable of a Commission that certainly wanted to address the issue at the end of its term rather than at the beginning”, boasts Mattéo Garguilo, co-president of the association that carried this citizen initiative, Against Conversion Therapy (ACT), contacted by Têtu. In mid-December, the association will be received by the Commissioner for Equality, Hadja Lahbib, to give testimony from people who have suffered from these therapies, notably Benoît Berthe Siward, who has already told his story during his ban in France. He should also be accompanied by Mami Watta, queen of Drag Race France, who has also addressed the subject on the france.tv program as well as in our columns.
ACT is also summoned by the European Parliament, an opportunity to take the pulse of a Parliament dominated by the right and the far right since the 2022 European elections. From La France insoumise to lawmakers supporting Emmanuel Macron, various MEPs have pledged to support the initiative. But this is not the case on the right; according to them, this ban does not fall within the European Union’s competence. “The right is quite ambivalent on the subject: in discourse, they denounce ‘conversion therapies’, but in practice, some like Rachida Dati when she was an MEP or in France, some Les Républicains senators, voted against the ban”, notes Mattéo Garguilo. Senator Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio (LR) wished, for example, to exclude transgender people from protection against these so-called ‘therapies’.
Strategy in Favor of LGBTQI+ Rights
Nevertheless, the Commission has shown positive signals. In a strategy for equality for LGBTQI+ people for 2026-2030, Europe commits to “take the necessary measures to combat conversion practices, with particular emphasis on supporting Member States that play a key role in this area”. An study must be commissioned to analyze “the nature and frequency of these practices, as well as their impact on LGBTIQ+ people.”
In its move toward banning ‘therapies’, the Commission specifically mentions ACT’s petition: “when it defines its approach to combating conversion practices, the Commission will notably take into account the recent European citizen initiative”. Moreover, Brussels does not forget intersex people committing “to fight against other harmful practices such as genital mutilations of intersex people and the forced medicalization of transgender people”. In September, a report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) noted a “significant increase” in violence against intersex people since 2019.
