SAO PAULO: Brazilian pop stars and gay rights activists have come out against a federal court's injunction allowing psychologists to treat homosexuality as a disease.
Judge Waldemar Claudio de Carvalho ruled last week that homosexuality could be considered a disease that could be treated with sexual orientation conversion therapies.
Ivete Sangalo, one of Brazil's most popular singers, said on Instagram that believing being gay is a disease is an "absurdity."
Toni Reis, who heads the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Alliance, told reporters the injunction is a step backward and that he plans to appeal it at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The Federal Council of Psychology approved a resolution in 1999 prohibiting psychologists from treating homosexuality as a disease. The council says it also would appeal the injunction.