Twelve “clinics” across the country, from the Moscow region to those in the Caucasus, where homosexuality is “treated” through prolonged isolation and prayers. Reveal the institutes Top secret who practice “conversion therapy”, this is the investigation carried out by Current Time TV, a Russian-language channel founded in 2017 by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America. Vladimir Putin's crusade against homosexuality is well known. In June, activists denounced a presidential directive that mentioned conversion therapy and last November, following a battle that began some time ago, Russia banned the activity of the non-existent “international LGBT+ movement” for “extremism”, with a sentence this gives the possibility of intervening in a fairly indiscriminate manner against activists and ordinary people, even by imposing prison sentences on them. The investigation shows how these “care” centers, including institutions and private practices, also benefit from the support of many doctors and religious leaders. In these clinics, some of which also deal with drug addiction, the “patient” – who is often kidnapped at the request of the family to have him “hospitalized” – is placed in forced isolation “for at least 6 months”, without any contact . with the outside. The only daily activities are conversations with psychologists and prayer sessions. The cost of treatment is approximately $1,400 per month. One of these certified centers, which nevertheless operates in secret like the others, offers hypnosis treatments via video link. As the channel reports, according to a report by the Coming Out group and the Sphere Foundation, in 2022, one in three people out of 6,500 people from the LGBTQIA+ community surveyed said they had experienced violence or discrimination in Russia. And 58 percent of those surveyed admitted that if they were victims of harassment, they would not report it for fear of sharing their information with the police.
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