Rights groups hail Ecuador's crackdown on lesbian 'torture clinics'

[Judi Lynn]

7
hours
ago

Rights groups hail Ecuador's crackdown on lesbian 'torture clinics'
By msnbc.com staff

Women’s rights groups are claiming victory in their efforts to get the government of Ecuador to shut down underground clinics that they say used torture techniques to try to “cure” lesbians.

Fundacion Causana, Taller de Comunicacion Mujer and Artikulacion Esporadika, a coalition of Ecuadorian women’s rights activists, started an online campaign on Change.org after working with women who had escaped what they call “torture clinics.” Many of the women cited physical and psychological abuse, including verbal threats, shackling, days without food or water, sexual abuse, and physical torture in efforts to make them “straight.”

“After years of campaigning about the practice of torture rehab clinics that claim to cure homosexuality, the Ecuadorian government has committed to deconstructing the belief that homosexuality is a sickness,” Fundacion Causana representative Karen Barba said in a press release issued by Change.org on Tuesday. “Using Change.org, we were able to achieve victory in closing down ex-gay torture clinics.”

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Earlier this week, President Rafael Correa also appointed Carina Vance, a lesbian and a gay-rights activist, as the new health minister. Vance is former executive director of Fundacion Causana.

More:
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10237126-rights-groups-hail-ecuadors-crackdown-on-lesbian-torture-clinics

[Judi Lynn]

1. Ecuador’s government to crack down on clinics found to use coercion to ‘cure’ homosexuals

Ecuador’s government to crack down on clinics found to use coercion to ‘cure’ homosexuals
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, January 26, 5:10 PM

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador’s health ministry says it will investigate and act forcefully against any clinics found to use coercion in an attempt to get homosexuals to change their sexual orientation.

Gay rights activists in the South American country say four clinics that engaged in such practices have been closed down in recent months but dozens more are in operation.

Health ministry spokesman David Troya tells The Associated Press that the agency will deal firmly and drastically with any clinics that offer so-called “de-homosexualization” treatment.

Newly named Health Minister Carina Vance has publicly defended gay rights, and Troya says the Cabinet minister is hiring someone to work exclusively on the issue.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/ecuadors-government-to-crack-down-on-clinics-found-to-use-coercion-to-cure-homosexuals/2012/01/26/gIQAOXbsTQ_story.html