Cypriot lawmakers and activists are pushing to criminalise “gay conversion therapy” which has left members of the island’s LGBTQ+ community traumatised through “medieval” practices such as exorcisms. A recent report by the activist group Accept-LGBTI Cyprus surveyed around 100 people and revealed the scope of widely discredited practices that claim to be able to change sexual orientation or gender identity still being carried out on the Mediterranean island. “A victim was forced by a priest to kneel in front of a statue of Jesus Christ and apologise for having sinned,” said Stefanos Evangelides, a lawyer and member of Accept.