Spanish life coach subjected to repeated ‘lawfare’ by LGBT lobby
Ten years ago, Elena Lorenzo, a life coach in Spain specializing in personal identity, received the first legal complaint lodged against her by the LGBT lobby there. Now fully a decade later and after several administrative proceedings were dismissed, she is once again facing criminal charges for “discriminatory messages” and awaiting trial.
Following an extensive professional career in teaching, training, and personal and spiritual development across various countries, in 2013 Lorenzo began working “with men and women who have chosen and decided to delve deeper into their personal identity whether due to doubts about their identity or because they experience same-sex attraction and wish to live out their heterosexuality,” as stated on her website.
Throughout this time, she has never been reported by any of her clients.
“I accompany people in their personal development journeys, regardless of sexual orientation. My work is carried out freely in an atmosphere of freedom and with absolute confidentiality,” she explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.
“Those who come to me do so, it goes without saying, of their own free will, seeking a space to explore issues related to their identity and emotional life. I never make clinical diagnoses, as I am neither a psychologist nor a psychiatrist,” she pointed out.
Past complaints
In August 2016, the group Arcópoli filed a complaint against Lorenzo, alleging that she had violated the Madrid regional government’s Comprehensive Law against LGBTI-phobia. Lorenzo said the complaint was based on “a covert recording made by someone posing as a client.” Despite the media attention the case attracted, it was ultimately dismissed.
In 2019, the same association filed another complaint, claiming that her website contained offensive language. She was fined over $22,000 and had to launch a fundraising campaign to cover the penalty.
“Many clients, grateful for the service provided over the years, helped me out,” the life coach said. Ultimately, the fine was overturned, and the amount was refunded three years later.
In February 2020, Arcópoli alleged that Lorenzo had engaged in the "promotion of therapies to cure or induce aversion to homosexuality" through her online course "Path to Heterosexuality." This complaint was also dismissed in May 2023.
A fourth proceeding, similar to the previous ones, was initiated in July 2022, this time led by the Spanish Association Against Conversion Therapies (AECTC, by its Spanish acronym). Three months later, Lorenzo was once again fined over $22,000. However, the penalty was rescinded after it was determined that there had been a "procedural defect resulting in a denial of the right of defense for the party under investigation.”
That same year, the AECTC filed another complaint against Lorenzo, alleging four offenses: incitement to hatred, illicit association, practicing a profession without a license, and consumer fraud.
The prosecutorʼs office did not find a basis for most of the accusations, although it considered the possibility that a crime was committed due to “discriminatory messages” contained in a section of her website dedicated to so-called homosexual obsessive compulsive disorder (homosexual OCD). Lorenzo has been forced to take down that section from her website because of a preliminary injunction ordered by the court, pending the trial.
Homosexual OCD is defined as an anxiety disorder of heterosexual persons that is characterized by the fear of experiencing same-sex attraction.
“The prosecution is seeking a sentence of several years in prison, a financial penalty, and being barred from practicing my profession,” stated Lorenzo, who charged she has been subjected to a “smear campaign over the last 10 years.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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