Original article (in Croatian) was published on 30/1/2024; Author: Matea Grgurinović
Last year in Poland, the ninth annual conference organized by the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice took place. This organization promotes therapies that have been condemned by both the European Parliament and the Commission.
Last year, the Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament commissioned a study focusing on “conversion practices,” also known as “conversion therapy” (CT) or “reparative” therapies and practices. The study defines these interventions as efforts aimed at “aimed at changing, repressing or suppressing the sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression of LGBT+ persons.” It highlights the discriminatory, humiliating, harmful, and unjust nature of such practices, noting their prohibition in a growing number of European Union (EU) member states, particularly concerning minors.
“Conversion practices are based on the false premise that the sexual orientation, gender identity and expression of LGBT+ individuals can be altered,” states the study, also suggesting that various professionals who deal with this topic, academics, representatives of civil society, and legislators in several EU and non-EU member states largely condemned such practices, which are also considered to be harmful to the physical and mental health of LGBT+ people.
The European Parliament has firmly opposed “conversion practices,” with the European Commission (EC) also acknowledging their negative impact.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has not considered homosexuality a pathology since 1990, and this stance was extended to transgenderism in 2019.
Yet, some European associations and organizations continue to pursue contrary efforts. Notably, in late October of last year, the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice (IFTCC) held its ninth annual conference in Poland. Dr. Mike Davidson, chairman of the Foundation, described on the Christian Concern website the conference’s aim: “explaining how both professionals and laypeople can benefit from training to help those struggling with sexuality and gender.”
Gender Trouble
The title of this year’s conference was “Turning the Tide: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Sexuality and Gender” and Davidson on the Christian Concern website also stated that “many who struggle with sexuality and gender have experienced wounds inflicted by bullying, for example” and, therefore, healthy communities like churches are places where most healing can be found.
The annual conference of the IFTCC is part of the vision of the said organization whose goal is the further personal development of those who, as the organization describes it, support people who want to leave same-sex attraction and gender incongruity behind, while the abbreviated conference program that is available online brings a summary of the ten key points of the IFTCC.
In the aforementioned ten points, it is emphasized, among other things, that the ban on “conversion therapy” represents a violation of human rights and freedoms and that the ban on this type of therapy will “expand the ‘cancel culture’, silence dissent and inhibit free speech”. “Conversion therapy” is also mentioned in a summary of the conference published on the Christian Concern website, where the ban is characterized as “draconian” and “Victorian”.
Neither the IFTCC nor the Core Issues Trust, a registered charity from Northern Ireland whose project is IFTCC, openly support “conversion therapy”, which the IFTCC considers, as it writes on its website, “a fake term with a political agenda”, although the Core Issues Trust also states on its website that it “supports those who abandon LGBT identities, behaviors, attractions, and life choices”.
“Trauma Treatment”
A joint investigation by our colleagues from the UK, Germany and the Russian media in exile, iStories Media, showed that the public face of the IFTCC, which aims to “promote a caring, non-judgmental educational environment” for people seeking support about their own sexuality, is significantly different from most of the pseudo-scientific and harmful rhetoric that could be heard at the conference that was held in Poland at the end of October (Byline Times), and which was attended by the aforementioned journalistic team.
Since 2019, Core Issues Trust and the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice (IFTCC) have been advocating for a method known as reintegrative therapy. At the 2022 conference organized by the IFTCC in Hungary, one of the notable participants was Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr., a clinical psychologist and the founder of reintegrative therapy, who also leads the American Reintegrative Therapy Association (RTA).
In the subsection “Science” on the RTA website, it is stated that decades of scientific research have shown that sexuality is fluid and that traumatic childhood experiences can, in some individuals, affect sexuality. Reintegrative therapy is available to everyone, as stated in the comparison table between “conversion therapy” and reintegrative therapy, who “want to get rid of trauma and addiction”.
On the RTA website, under the “Science” section, it is claimed that extensive scientific research supports the notion of sexual fluidity and suggests that traumatic experiences in childhood can influence an individual’s sexuality in some cases. Reintegrative therapy is presented as an option for those who “wish to address trauma and addiction,” distinguishing it from “conversion therapy” in their materials.
By anchoring sexuality in trauma, it is insinuated that it can be “cured” by treating said trauma.
Out of Context
The goal is to “treat trauma”, while changing sexuality is often a “by-product”, it is stated on the pages of Reintegrative Therapy, which also features a large, longitudinal study with 75 participants that showed how reintegrative therapy can be associated with a “statistically significant reduction in same-gender attractiveness, increasing heterosexual attractiveness, changes in sexual identity towards heterosexual identity and increasing psychological well-being”.
RTA wants to present their work as scientific, so they cite actual scientific studies and select the quotes that suit them.
For example, they claim on their website that “a significant number of men who identify as homosexual actually admit that they sometimes feel romantic and sexual attraction to women” and at the same time cite the study “Mostly heterosexual and mostly gay/lesbian: evidence for new sexual orientation identities” by American psychology professor Ritch Savin-Williams and doctor Zhana Vrangalova.
However, in response to a journalist’s inquiry from our colleagues, Savin-Williams said that he considers it “unbelievable that the ‘right wing’ interprets the existence of people who are mostly heterosexual and mostly homosexual as ‘evidence’ for ‘conversion therapy’”and that the only thing his research shows is that “sexuality is innate and not subject to change”.
“Reparative Therapy”
The founder of Reintegrative Therapy, Nicolosi Jr. is the son of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Sr. who advocated and practised “reparative therapy”, a pseudoscientific and discredited form of “conversion therapy”. Although Nicolosi Jr. claims that reintegrative therapy is completely different from conversion practices, he does not hide that he continues to develop his father’s ideas.
Thus, for example, during the IFTCC conference held in Bratislava in 2019, psychologist Tim Long, who presented reintegrative therapy to the audience, said that “Doctor Nicolosi Jr. is working on standardizing the treatment approach that his father started. Doctor Nicolosi Sr. coined the term “reparative therapy” for his treatment. Unfortunately, this term is widely misunderstood. Doctor Nicolosi Jr. (…) renamed it reintegrative therapy”, said Long.
Although it is claimed that the goal of reintegrative therapy is to treat trauma, not to change sexual attraction and orientation, the Association’s YouTube channel, where you can find videos like “Matthew Grech shares his story towards freedom from homosexual behaviour and feelings” or “Kylie Delia shares her joy in freedom from lesbian relationships”, suggests otherwise.
According to the Independent Forensic Expert Group on Conversion Therapy, reintegrative therapy is a form of conversion practice.
Echo in Croatia
In the summary of the program of last year’s conference held in Poland, there is also a call to sign the IFTCC’s International Declaration on “Conversion Therapy” and Therapeutic Choice which states that bans on “conversion therapy” are unreliable as long as potential causal links between trauma and same-gender sexual attraction and “gender dysphoria” remain unexamined.
The declaration was signed, among others, by several people from Croatia (an archived link with a full list of signatories can be found here). In addition to several anonymous signatures of “concerned individuals” who are only stated to be “administrative workers” or “parents”, one is also signed with their full name.
This is Berislav Bulat, a family doctor and president of the Committee of the Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK) of the Virovitica-Podravine County. We contacted Bulat because we were interested in why he signed the declaration and what he thinks about reintegrative as well as “conversion therapy”. He says that, apart from the aforementioned Declaration, he is not familiar with the work of the IFTCC, neither in Croatia nor in the world.
In response to our question as to why he considers the aforementioned Declaration to be important, Bulat replied that, in his opinion, declarations are “a way of democratic expression of members of various nations on internationally important topics”. He adds that he has been following the “scientific and public discourse on ‘conversion therapy’ as a term in the broader context of human sexual or gender identity” for more than twenty years.
“Although there are many shortcomings and unknowns about these topics, numerous practical changes and decisions in medical science and public decision-making and governance are already present every day in some parts of the world. Therefore, I consider the declaration to be just one of the important warnings of possible dangers due to rushing into insufficiently tested activities. More importantly, it is a warning against polarization towards ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ methods of action, with the tendency that without a clear critical approach, some attempts at action are declared ‘wrong’ and banned, while others with the same non-existent level of criticality are promoted and encouraged as if they were the only possible, infallible and therefore correct. Such exclusivity should encourage everyone to question what we, the signatories of the Declaration, are doing”, says Bulat.
Bulat, however, does not agree with the statements that an increasing number of EU member states prohibit “conversion therapy”, “considering that currently there are only four or five that have legally implemented it”.
“In some who had similar legal proposals, such ideas were rejected. I consider the declaration important precisely because it calls for caution due to an insufficiently critical approach”, he says, noting that he hopes that our research will also “remain objective and contribute to discourse, not polarization”.
We were also interested in whether Bulat had ever encountered ‘conversion therapy’ or reintegrative therapy or people who practice it in Croatia, and what he thought about these therapies. The doctor replies that currently all forms of medical therapy are “in big trouble”, due to the neglect of the health care system, the departure of medical staff from Croatia, but also the fact that a decreasing number of young people want to enter the system.
In his 15-year work experience, he did not encounter forms of treatment related to sexual health problems, but he had “experiences with psychotherapeutic forms of treatment because they are more and more present in our generally suffering society”.
“While earlier, for example at the beginning of my work experience, we only had the option of psychopharmacotherapy, now psychological and psychotherapeutic methods of treatment are practically ubiquitous, both in the public and private sectors. Therefore, it is possible that some of these therapists also deal with conversion therapy in the sense of help related to gender health”, he concludes.
Bans in Europe
Although Bulat states that it is possible that some therapists also engage in conversion therapy in the sense of help related to gender health, the fact is that the EP has repeatedly asked for a ban on such practices.
Although it is true that “conversion therapy” has been banned in the European Union by four countries – Malta, Germany, France and Greece – it should also be noted that numerous regions in Spain have placed administrative bans on the practice of this form of “therapy”. Furthermore, a ban has been proposed in a number of EU countries, while in some countries they are currently being discussed.
Both in Poland and Portugal there were proposals to ban it, as well as in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria where, for example, the state did not consider a ban necessary, since such practices are prohibited by other provisions.
An EP briefing from 2022 states that it is estimated that around five percent of the LGBT+ population have been offered this type of “therapy”, while around two percent underwent the therapy, although other sources suggest that the actual numbers are much higher. There is also the fear that after the ban in a certain country, people who practice this type of “therapy” will simply move to another EU country.
Was the therapy also carried out in Croatia?
Faktograf.hr also contacted a number of associations and researchers dealing with the topics of sexuality, gender and anti-gender movements. None of the associations like Zagreb Pride, Iskorak or the Center for Education, Counseling and Research (CESI), researchers like Ivan Tranfic who deals with anti-gender movements, nor experts like the Zagreb Psychological Society or the Croatian Society for Sexual Therapy (HDST) have heard of reintegrative therapy or that the same is practised in Croatia.
Although there are no official records that “conversion therapy” was carried out in Croatia, Tranfic drew our attention to an article from Der Standard from 2013 in which it was stated that “conversion therapy” was also carried out in Croatia. Also, the publishing house Benedikta translated some issues on this topic, so in 2012 a translation of the book “Coming Out Straight: how to understand and cure homosexuality” was published.
In 2011, psychologist Alen Perusko published an article on the Katolik.hr web portal (archived here) “Homosexuality from a scientific point of view” in which, among other things, he presented theses on the treatment of homosexuality and that “according to research, homosexuals are significantly more prone to paedophilia than heterosexuals”. Perusko was then reported to the Croatian Psychological Chamber by the lesbian group “Kontra” and the Center for the Rights of Sexual and Gender Minorities “Iskorak” because of the aforementioned article. (Katolik.hr)
The case of Ana Dragicevic
Zagreb Pride told us that in their work they encountered “conversion therapies” (not “reintegrative therapies”), although on an “anecdotal basis”, and that not a single case was officially documented.
The association also draws attention to the case that occupied the Croatian public 14 years ago, when Ana Dragicevic, spent five years of her life in the Lopaca Psychiatric Institution. Dragicevic was placed in that institution as a sixteen-year-old by her parents in order to “cure” her of homosexuality (Libela, Vecernji list). When she turned 18, she was detained in the said institution, even though she did not give them written consent, and they tied her up, drugged her, and put her in solitary confinement. Dragicevic was released when she told the doctor that she was “cured” and that she “no longer likes girls”.
In 2017, the then-director of the Psychiatric Institution in Lopaca, Mirjana Vulin, was illegally sentenced to ten months of unconditional imprisonment (Novi list) because “in the period from September 9, 2005, to May 13, 2008, she treated patient Ana Dragicevic with a diagnosis of behavioural disorder without consent and forcibly hospitalized an adult girl, without first determining whether there were reasons for it” and because “she made a decision about her detention against the law, and did not even inform the competent County Court about it”.
A positive example
The majority of our interlocutors stated that LGBT+ people in the Croatian public health system mostly receive support, and as a particularly positive example, the Sveti Ivan Psychiatry Clinic in Zagreb was highlighted, which in the middle of 2023 launched an initiative to provide therapeutic support to LGBT+ people who are experiencing minority stress through the Mental Health Protection Program of LGBTIQ+ persons called BOJE – “Hospital open to equals”.
“LGBTIQ+ people are daily exposed to prejudice, stigma, discrimination, and are often victims of psychological, physical, sexual or economic violence. The environment in which they live through various mechanisms creates and accumulates stressors that these people continuously encounter, which often leads to exhaustion of adaptive mechanisms and impaired mental health. We gathered as a multidisciplinary team of experts educated in the field of psychotherapy in order to provide concrete help in the form of counselling, psychoeducation and psychotherapy treatment, all in a safe and depathologizing environment”, states the leaflet about the program published by the hospital.
In Split, for example, LGBT+ people are “still seriously marginalized and excluded”. This was shown by research conducted by sociologist Pavao Parunov, an assistant at the Department of Sociology at the University of Zadar who researched three Split LGBT+ associations.
LGBT+ people deal with impaired mental health much more often, Parunov said in an interview with Nacional and concluded that “continuous adjustment of one’s behaviour, hiding one’s identity and the inability to express oneself openly can significantly affect a person’s mental health and emotional well-being”.
The initial research was conducted by fellow journalists Finbarr Toesland, Antonia Gross and Rina Nikolaeva. Their research was financially supported by Journalismfund Europe.