The Beginning of the End for “Treatment Centres” Targeting Lesbians in Ecuador

After over one hundred thousand people from around the world signed a petition on Change.org, and after a decade of activism, it’s the beginning of the end for ex-gay “treatment centres” in Ecuador. The petition was run by Fundacion Causana, a human rights group in Quito, with which the health ministry is now working to ‘eradicate these clinics from Ecuador, free the women trapped inside, and launch a national public awareness campaign to fight homophobia’.

It’s excellent news. The clinics hardly even have a pretense of genuine “treatment,” whatever that would mean to people who have the horrific thinking that queer sexualities are something to be cured. What the clinics have is deprivation of food and water, shackling, and physical and sexual torture. There have been few escapees, and hundreds of clinics. Lesbians are most likely to be subject to the clinics as they’re more likely to live with their families longer, says Tatiana Velasquez, of lesbian organization Taller de Comunicación Mujer. Diane Anderson-Minshall at The Advocate also reports that the clinics have also “treated” people who are gay, bisexual, trans, or crossdressers.

From a Change.org press release:

Before resigning from his position earlier this month [January], Minister of Health Dr. David Chirriboga announced the Ecuadorian government would investigate and close all torture clinics in the country, launch a national advertising and awareness campaign against homophobia, and develop a crisis hotline for victims.

Thirty clinics were shut down in September, but so many more remain. It’s been hard to write in present tense in this post, which is why I’m so glad that Dr Chirriboga’s successor is moving very quickly indeed. Carina Vance Mafla, a lesbian and former executive director of Fundacion Causana, was a perfect choice for Ecuador’s new Minister for Public Health. Three clinics were raided within the first few days of her time as minister, at the end of January, and she’s going to keep going strong.

I’m glad to see that Ecuador’s government is taking such a strong stand after so long, and, moreover, centring lesbians where they should be centred.

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