Brazilian Federal Supreme Court Jurist Cármen Lúcia Suspends ‘Gay Cure’

By Jack Arnhold, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This Wednesday, April 24th, senior jurist of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court Cármen Lúcia announced that she had suspended a decision by the Federal Court that had previously allowed Brazilian psychologists to provide ‘sexual reorientation’ to homosexual patients in what was commonly dubbed as the ‘gay cure’ treatment.

Carmen Lúcia’s suspension of the previous decision by the Federal Court now remains valid until the matter is discussed by the Federal Supreme Court.

Speaking with O Globo, Councilor Pedro Paulo Bicalho of the Brazilian Federal Council of Psychology stated, “Without a doubt, this is a great victory for Brazilian psychology. It suspends a possible serious violation of human rights.”

As reported by Agência Brasil, the origins of the case first emerged in September 2017, when Judge Waldemar Cláudio de Carvalho, of the 14th Federal Court of the Federal District, gave his authorization for psychologists to treat patients who wanted help ‘reversing’ their sexual orientation.

This decision was quickly repudiated by the Brazilian Federal Council of Psychology, who have a resolution explicitly prohibiting the pathologization of homosexuality.

The judge then retaliated by banning the Federal Council of Psychology from punishing psychologists who treated homosexuals in this ‘curative’ manner, arguing that any punitive actions from the Council would be unconstitutional.

It was then that the Federal Council of Psychology appealed to the Federal Supreme Court on constitutional grounds, as the court is the highest in the country when judging constitutional issues and its rulings cannot be overturned.

When presenting their case to the Federal Supreme Court, the Federal Council of Psychology argued that, following judge de Carvalho’s controversial ruling, “the Brazilian legal system has implicitly admitted that the existential condition of homosexuality in Brazil, instead of being an intrinsic element and constitutive of the dignity of the person, has regressed in time, and is now considered a pathology that can be supposedly treated and cured through the health services, including with the help of psychologists.”

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