According to the latest ILGA Europe report, almost a quarter of all EU citizens have undergone some form of conversion practice.
Respondents in Greece claimed to be the most exposed to the virus in the EU at 38%, while respondents in France, Italy and the Netherlands all said they were least exposed at 18%.
Conversion practices, so-called conversion therapy, falsely claim that they can change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. These have been regularly described as harmful, ineffective, and pseudoscientific.
These actions can take many forms, including family intervention, religious rituals and counseling, psychiatric treatment, medication, physical and sexual violence, and verbal abuse and humiliation.
The ILGA Europe report found that transgender, non-binary and intersex people experienced greater exposure than cisgender respondents.
This is the first study in a new ‘Intersections Report’ series and is based on data from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) included in the 2023 LGBTIQ III survey.
influence
Nearly all respondents who experienced proselytism in the form of physical, sexual, or verbal abuse avoided certain places for fear of being assaulted, threatened, or harassed for being LGBTQ+.
Other factors, such as age and financial status, can affect how likely you are to consent to so-called conversion therapy, and under what conditions.
The report found that more than a quarter of trans men struggling to make ends meet had previously consented to conversion under pressure or intimidation.
Meanwhile, 22% of respondents who are trans women between the ages of 40 and 54 have freely consented to a conversion act at some point.
“Practice based on lies”
According to an OECD report, discrimination based on sexual orientation costs the EU up to €89 million in GDP each year. This shortage is caused by lower workplace productivity, lower incomes, and barriers to employment.
Nevertheless, broader European efforts to crack down on discrimination and conversion practices appear to be underway. In late January, the continent’s human rights watchdog, the Parliament of the Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, approved a resolution calling on countries to introduce bans on the practice of proselytism.
He said such acts should be clearly defined and criminalized in national law, and monitoring and reporting mechanisms should be established.
The approved resolution also proposes a series of measures to support and protect victims, evaluate the laws in place, and encourage research and data collection on the prevalence and impact of proselytism.
“These practices are based on a lie, the lie that diversity is a flaw,” Helena Dalli, former European Commissioner for Equality and Malta’s former Minister for European Affairs and Equality, said during the debate on the resolution. “They are sustained by stigma and only survive because the institutions and the state perpetuate it.”
The resolution is not legally binding, but could act as political pressure on the 46 member states of the Council of Europe.
The EU itself has taken steps to combat discrimination, and at the end of 2025 the European Commission adopted a strategy to counter the growing attacks against members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Half of EU member states now have national strategies on LGBTQ+ equality, and at least eight member states have banned conversion practices, including Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain.