Mexico City’s regional congress passed a bill which outlaws gay conversion therapy on Friday, July 24. This makes the capital city the first municipality in Mexico to do so, marking a major victory for the country’s LGBTQ+ community.

Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change or alter an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The practice has been criticized for treating LGBTQ+ identities as mental illnesses and for leading those who undergo the therapy to be at a heightened risk for depression, suicide, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and the use of illicit drugs.

The new law, which imposes up to five years’ imprisonment for conversion therapy providers, was passed during one of the regional body’s virtual sessions. The law also states that higher punishments will be given to providers who attempt to impose the practice on minors.

In an interview with online magazine Them, activist Enrique Torre Molina spoke on the importance of the law’s passage in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality in Mexico.

“Over the past few years I've come to know many — too many — stories of LGBTQ+ people who survived ‘conversion therapy’ and torture, or who have stepped away from their families who believed they could and should ‘change,’” Torre said. “It's exciting to witness this historic win. Our community deserves love and respect.”

President of Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission Nashieli Ramírez echoed Torre’s sentiments in an interview with El Universal.

“These practices are equivalent to torture,” Ramírez said in Spanish. “We’re saying that these practices are generally done to minors without a valid principle, because homosexuality and transgender identities are not diseases.”

This latest law is not the first time Mexico City has pushed the country toward greater LGBTQ+ inclusivity. On March 13, 2004, the city amended its civil code to allow for transgender citizens to change their name and sex on their birth certificates. Likewise, the city became the first Latin American municipality to legalize same-sex marriage on December 21, 2009.

Activists around the world have increasingly pushed for the ban of LGBTQ+ conversion therapy over the past decade. Manvendra Singh Gohil, an openly gay Indian prince, has been a vocal proponent for India to outlaw the practice.

“I was myself a victim of conversion therapy,” Gohil said in an interview with Forbes. “When I came out, the first thing [my parents] tried to do was convert me. They wouldn’t accept me as a gay child.”

The United Nations called for a universal ban on the practice in June. However, only five countries as of this article’s publication outlaw the practice, with Germany joining Malta, Ecuador, Brazil and Taiwan in doing so in May. In the United States, 20 states and a number of municipalities have outlawed the practice, although support for such a measure at the federal level has been mixed.

The Mexico City law went into effect on July 31 and could serve as a precedent for future laws to be passed within other Mexican states and jurisdictions.