Culture war of gay conversion therapy

Gay conversion therapy is a fiercely contested topic - advocates claim it isn't harmful but it has been condemned by UK health organisations.  It is legal in the UK, however in 2015 January 14 health organisations - including NHS England and the Royal  College of Psychiatrists - signed an agreement that described the treatment as "potentially harmful and unethical".  Church bosses also call for ban on gay conversion therapy: ‘People can’t alter their desire’

The Government should introduce regulation to ban so-called “gay cure therapies” that purport to have the ability to change someone’s sexual  orientation, an MP has said.

Mike Free, a Conservative, said the psychotherapy industry was so far not regulated by statue which the Government had a need to “go further” to ensure that “quack” therapies were rooted out. “It remains possible for individuals within the UK to be referred by an NHS professional to a
psychotherapist for a so-called ‘gay get rid of’,” he said throughout a debate about them in Parliament’s Westminster Hall.

Mr Freer, who's himself gay, said bogus supposed “therapies” offered by some practitioners including exorcism, buttoning a shirt, and prayer.  He also said electric surprise and nausea pain-aversion treatments were in use to alter sexuality. He claimed one Austrian doctor had offered   experimental testicular transplants.

“I think it’s important to debunk the idea that such so-called treat therapies might be gentle … they aren't gentle therapies,” he said.

“Most of us agree it’s harmful, we all agree it shouldn’t be done, yet we can’t obtain it banned.”

Mainstream medical, scientific, and psychological opinion is that such treatments haven't any basis in technology.

The psychotherapy sector happens to be governed with a voluntary memorandum of understanding issued by the Government.

David Cameron said in April that the Government could potentially “go further” if this approach, which he described as “very firm”, didn't work.

Mr Freer called on Mr Cameron to make good this recommendation.

Research published by LGBT charity Stonewall in July discovered that one in ten health and sociable care workers had witnessed a colleague declare a perception in a “gay cure”.

Labour MP Diana Johnson last year said ministers were ignoring the problem of the therapies availability on the NHS.

In response, a Department for Health spokesperson said at the time: “NHS funded therapies are provided for those who need them to help them manage a mental problem.

“This could include people coming to conditions using their sexuality. This is definitely not exactly like gay-to-straight “conversion” therapy, which we strongly oppose.

“Being gay is no illness and it will never be treated as something which is curable, which is why we are proactively discovering ways of ensuring that ‘conversion’ therapy can never be funded by general public money.”

Make offering Gay Conversion Therapy a criminal offence in the UK - Petition

This legislation would help these people feel safer and more able to be open about their true identity. Conversion Therapy is counselling or  training which attempts to 'reverse' a person's non-heterosexual identity. This therapy often includes electric shocks, counselors encouraging suicide, and damaging ideology linking LGBT+ identities to sexual abuse from family members in early years. It is scientifically proven that this
therapy does not work! If everyone who reads our article, will sign this petition, our future would be much more secure.

QueerLife is an International LGBT News Agency for and by people from abroad. Through our wide range of activities, we want to create the opportunity to meet other international LGBT people. Everybody is welcome at our activities, both international and local and regardless of ones gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, ethnic background, social status, and so on...