Canadian lawmakers pass bill criminalizing LGBT conversion therapy

FILE PHOTO: People walk on Parliament Hill the morning after the federal election in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Patrick Doyle

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's House of Commons on Tuesday passed a bill criminalizing LGBT conversion therapy 263 to 63, handing a win to the minority ruling Liberal party which promised to ban the practice during an unveiling of its election platform in 2019.

Aimed at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, conversion therapy can include talk therapy, hypnosis, electric shocks and fasting. The American Medical Association has condemned the practice as "harmful and ineffective."