Lea Blattner decided to resign from the position of deputy head of JEVP, the youth wing of the Swiss Evangelical People's Party (EVP). Earlier, the 33-year-old politician received a wave of threats.
After the politician announced in April that she was a lesbian, representatives of her own party began attacking her. — Since coming out, I have experienced both a lot of kindness and repeated manifestations of rejection and hatred in EVP circles and surroundings, says Blattner.
— The resignation is a consequence of a situation in which the protective mechanisms did not work effectively enough, she emphasized.
Why did Lea Blattner resign from the party?
What experiences has Lea Blattner had with conversion therapies?
What reactions did she receive after revealing her orientation?
What are the bans on conversion therapy in Switzerland?
Swiss politician intimidated because of her orientation. “Demon of homosexuality”
The Swiss politician described how she had been repeatedly intimidated since coming out. She allegedly received a letter demanding that she leave the party.
Homosexuality in conservative Christian circles, including EVP, still remains a taboo. For this reason, Lea Blattner underwent “conversion therapies” for years in order to “drive out the demon of homosexuality.”
— The brainwashing started earlier, says the politician about his experiences with the Evangelical church in Basel. — I was told that homosexuality is a sin. However, I am not angry with anyone, because I believe that these pastors had no bad intentions, they were simply unable to question themselves and their worldview, she adds.
The five men prayed for the demon to leave her
The politician's pastor referred her to a trainer who was supposed to “cure” her. — He tried to find the reasons for my homosexuality. He claimed that the perpetrator of my childhood sexual experiences had a demon inside him. He also talked about original sin, she described.
Lea Blattner goes on to talk about the practice of casting out demons. —Five men laid their hands on me and prayed for the demon to leave me. It was terrifying, but I had so much hope that something would change. But in reality, it just exhausted and exhausted me, she described.
She resigned from the party leadership. “I couldn't make it”
After her coming out, she noticed that the party started treating her differently. — There were whispers behind my back. I often had to hear why, as a lesbian, I should not lead this party. “At some point I just couldn't cope anymore,” she described.
“Conversion therapies” appear regularly in the evangelical community. In 2021, “Blick” wrote about a young man who, as a teenager, was subjected to the so-called “transformation” therapies to “cure” him of homosexuality.
Currently, such “therapies” are banned in several cantons in Switzerland. However, the first nationwide initiatives on this matter have been rejected because a report by the Swiss Federal Council is to be published on the matter.
