From electric shocks to ‘praying away the gay’, global momentum is growing to ban so-called “conversion therapy”, with bills drawn up in nine countries, a rights group said on Wednesday. The United States, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Germany are among countries seeking to outlaw the treatment, based on the belief that being gay or transgender is a mental illness that can be ‘cured’, LGBT+ advocacy group ILGA said. Worldwide, only Brazil, Ecuador and Malta have national bans on conversion therapy, condemned as ineffective and harmful to mental health by more than 60 associations of doctors, psychologists or counselors globally, the ILGA study said. “The main driving force (for reform) is survivors with their testimonies coming forwards,” Lucas Ramon Mendos, author of the ILGA report, which said 2020 could be a turning point in the fight against ‘therapies’ that have ruined many lives.