THEGAYUK

Tag: Gay Cure

All the latest breaking news on the so-called “gay cure”. Browse THEGAYUK’s complete collection of news, articles and commentary on gay cure.

  • House of Commons faces huge backlash after asking whether “Gay Cure” should be made illegal

    House of Commons faces huge backlash after asking whether “Gay Cure” should be made illegal

    The House of Common’s official Twitter account has been blasted by users after asking if conversion therapy or “gay cures” as it is more commonly known should be made illegal in the UK, despite the government already admitting that the practice was “wrong”.

    As it stands gay cure therapy or conversion therapy is still legal in the UK, it has been debated and defeated in the Commons numerous times, in 2015 and then again in 2017.

    Back in 2018 the Conservative UK government, under Theresa May, said that conversion therapy was something it would address in its “LGBT Action Plan”.

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    However, two years on, not much progress has been made on any of the points made in the plan. Now a recent Tweet by the official House of Commons Twitter account has been slammed for asking a question that many have said is not open to debate.

    The tweet was heavily ratio’d after asking users “How does #conversiontherapy affect the #LGBTQ community? Should it be made illegal? What would that mean to you? @HoCpetitions is investigating a petition calling for the practice to be made illegal”

    https://twitter.com/HouseofCommons/status/1279000022189817857

    The response was swift with condemnation of the way in which the question had been posed with many people taking issue that was necessary of debate.

    Conversion therapy is seen by many doctors has deeply ineffective and LGBT+ advocates say that therapy of this nature is entirely problematic.

    Alison Camps, the co-chair of Pride in London replied to the Tweet,

    “Is this some kind of joke? The Government pledged to do this two years ago. It’s inhuman that you continue to make us BEG for something that is so obviously barbaric.”

    https://twitter.com/AliCamps/status/1279043812850106369

    MP Alicia Kearns MP for Rutland and Melton also replied to the Tweet adding,

    “Of course it should be made illegal, it’s abusive and fraudulent. The Government has committed to ban it already, and legislative options will be put up for consultation to determine the best legislation to protect the LGBTQ+ community.”

    “Our intention was to provide a platform for people to share their opinions”

    A House of Commons’ spokesperson said,

    “A Petition calling on the Government to make LGBT conversion therapy illegal in the UK has reached almost 200,000 signatures. In its response to the Petition, the Government did not make a specific commitment to making conversion therapy illegal. Given the strength of interest in this issue, the Petitions Committee decided to further the conversation by gathering evidence from the public on the subject.

    “The questions posed on the House of Commons social media feeds were intended to encourage people to submit their experiences. This information will then be presented to the Government. A petition with over 100,000 signatures would usually be considered for a Westminster Hall debate, however, given restrictions placed on Parliament as a result of COVID 19, Westminster Hall debates are currently suspended.


    “We apologise. Our intention was to provide a platform for people to share their opinions on this subject with the Petitions Committee, and inform its case to the Government. Clearly we misjudged this and have now deleted the tweet.”

    Why is homosexual still seen as something that can be cured?

    Homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in 1973, however, it is still possible to obtain treatment via the NHS, by referral,  to “cure” you of your homosexuality. As it stands the psychotherapy industry in the UK is not regulated by the state – and therefore some therapists still offer “gay cures”.

    In October 2019 it was revealed that 10 per cent of the UK’s population could be cured.

    This is coupled with the horrifying revelation that around 20 per cent of people (one in five) said that being LGBT+ was immoral or went against their beliefs.

    Does conversion therapy actually work?

    There are a number of therapists and organisations in the UK and in the USA that make the claim that conversion therapy can help LGB people to become heterosexual. However, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, there is no evidence that such change is possible.

  • One in 10 people in the UK think that gay people can be cured

    One in 10 people in the UK think that gay people can be cured

    jossuetrejo_oficial / Pixabay

    Startling findings reveal that 10 per cent of the UK’s population think that gay cures could work on LGBT+ people.

    Despite many people understanding that LGBT+ are born that way, around 1 in 10 people in the UK, still think that homosexuality or being transgender can be cured according to findings recorded by Galop, the UK’s largest anti-violence charity for LGBT+ people.

    This is coupled with the horrifying revelation that around 20 per cent of people (one in five) said that being LGBT+ was immoral or went against their beliefs.

    The findings were analysed from a representative sample of just over 1,600 people.

    Does conversion therapy actually work?

    There are a number of therapists and organisations in the UK and in the USA that make the claim that conversion therapy can help LGB people to become heterosexual. However, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, there is no evidence that such change is possible.

    Does gay conversion therapy actually work?

    Nick Antjoule, Galop’s Head of Hate Crime Services said, At Galop we’ve seen a stark increase in the severity and scale of anti-LGBT violence and abuse over the past few years. This appears to be a symptom of emergent anti-LGBT attitudes and social division across society. The fact that anti-LGBT hate crime figures are rising so much faster than race, faith and disability hate crime should be a wake-up call for policy makers. We urge action now to address this problem before it escalates further. 
     
    Our research shows the journey toward LGBT+ equality is far from over. Despite most people in this UK poll voicing support for LGBT+ people; a significant proportion still think we are dangerous, immoral or that we can be ‘cured’. 

    Younger people hold more negative views about LGBT+ people rather than the older generation.

    Antijoule continued, “It offers a sobering reminder that progress achieved in recent decades can easily be reversed.

    “Young people polled tended to hold more negative views toward LGBT+ people than other age groups. This alarming finding warns of a generational pivot ahead and a bumpy road for those of us committed to challenging anti-LGBT violence and abuse. 

  • FILM REVIEW | Boy Erased

    FILM REVIEW | Boy Erased

    ★★★★ | Boy Erased

    In 2004, at the age of 19, American Garrard Conley was sent by his parents to a conversion therapy program to rid him of his homosexual feelings. This true story is now a film called Boy Erased.

    The amazing Lucas Hedges (Lady Bird, Manchester by the Sea) plays Garrard. He is a young man growing up in a small bible belt community in Arkansas. His father Marshall (Russell Crowe) is a respected pastor in the local church while his mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) believes in everything her husband says. But Garrard is given a choice by his parents when he tells them he is gay: either agree to attend the church-support conversion therapy program where he will have to go to a camp with similar young adults or risk losing his family, a family that he is quite close to. Garrard has no choice but to go through therapy. Garrard is happy being gay – even entering into a relationship with a fellow student at college – but it is his religious upbringing (and a stern father) which helps him make the decision to go to therapy.

    Once he is at the Love in Action gay conversion therapy assessment program, he meets fellow young men like himself (including director and actor Xavier Dolan, and Joe Alwyn – at the time of this writing Taylor Swift’s boyfriend). They all struggle to not come to terms with the way they are, meanwhile all the time guided by the chief therapist Victor Sykes (writer and director of the film Joel Edgerton). But of course, Garrard has urges that he can’t control, while his parents feel that for him to lead a happy life is to lead the life of a straight man.

    The real Garrard Conley, of course, luckily survived his time in the therapy program to write the book which is now this film, and it’s a very good film. Hedges, as always, is fantastic. One never knows what he’s thinking because of his inquisitive facial expressions, and he steals the movie from the two heavyweight actors who are playing his parents. Crowe is excellent as the self-righteous father but Kidman is both warm and tender as the mother who loves her husband but perhaps loves her son a bit more. Boy Erased is at times heartbreaking, but for the most part, it’s triumphant.

    Boy Erased is out now and available to order from Amazon

  • COMMENT | Banning “Gay Cure” therapy could drive it underground, so what can Government do to stop it?

    COMMENT | Banning “Gay Cure” therapy could drive it underground, so what can Government do to stop it?

    Making Prevention better than The Cure

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    The UK government’s LGBT Action Plan sounds like the blueprint for some upcoming wargame, rather than a 32-page, 75-commitment based document aimed at pulling down barriers for the LGBT community in both their public and private lives. Yet one promise causing the most interest appears to commitment to finally ban the so-called ‘gay conversion therapy’:

    “We will bring forward proposals to end the practice of conversion therapy in the UK. These activities are wrong, and we are not willing to let them continue. Led by the Government Equalities Office, we will fully consider all legislative and non-legislative options to prohibit promoting, offering or conducting conversion therapy. Our intent is protect people who are vulnerable to harm or violence, whether that occurs in a medical, commercial or faith-based context. We are not trying to prevent LGBT people from seeking legitimate medical support or spiritual support from their faith leader in the exploration of their sexual orientation or gender identity”.

    It is rarely the child who finds the problem with their own sexuality once they understand and accept it, rather it is those around them; those who would otherwise provide support. LGBT charities still exist to tackle those occasions when parents are unaccepting – if you want to appreciate the real scope, just take a glance at the homelessness statistics and the functions of the Albert Kennedy Trust. The government’s promise on introducing both legislative and non-legislative options to prohibit “promoting, offering or conducting conversion therapy” is an important and substantive change in tenor that should not be underestimated.

    The conversion therapy makes the fundamental assumption that sexual orientation is a psychological disorder that can be ‘cured’. Previously, while there was no general acceptance of it, the UK government’s position was that the regulation and code of ethics for any regulated practitioner would prevent LGBT individuals being offered or undergoing this treatment. The government would not legislate for the sake of it and nor would they criminalise the conduct.

    There is not harmony or unified thinking about this across either Europe or the rest of the world. Some countries, like Brazil and Argentina, and a few US states have banned it but great swathes still take no real affirmative action.

    How can the Government ‘Ban’ Conversion Therapies?

    The government has many tools in its war cupboard when approaching these. The big guns of the arsenal could be the criminalisation of the therapy itself, but it can just drive the practice further underground and some would argue that it is a practice which people ‘choose’ to undertake. Criminalising the promotion of it is another route, or introducing hefty fines for those practitioners caught conducting or condoning it. How would you regulate it though? Those who are professionals are already regulated by their professional body and who have already taken steps to prevent it.

    Some, including myself, have argued previously about how the government was simply burying their heads in the sand on this point and was failing vulnerable children who are not being taken to regulated professionals, but camps involving the most inhumane physical and psychological torment.

    Whichever way the government shapes this, a root and branch approach is going to be needed to get this from the core and strip it back to a fundamental understanding in all sections of society. Gender identity and sexual orientation already have incredibly high levels of suicide and depression amongst young adults and children. It is important that they see this change and the support that it brings them when society will step in and say, “This is not just wrong, it is abhorrent. This will not be tolerated in any form anymore.”

    For the most determined parent, could they still just take their children abroad? How can we protect and prevent this too without a wider consensus in foreign countries as well? I would hope the UK government has a plan to deter this from happening, but what safeguards can they put in place? Here we would hope to see non-legislative change, promoting better understand and LGBT education in schools, building relations with different parts of society and adding these forms of harm to child protection officers in schools and local authorities. The Church of England acknowledged this in 2017. Will other community leaders openly do so too?

    The LGBT Action Plan is a tome of information, statistics and ambitious promises. It highlights many other facts, such as disclosure of their sexual orientation at work and the high level of discrimination in the workplace that still remains. While we have legislation in this area already, the absence of real and substantive legislation or debate in the area of gay conversion therapy is astounding. Whether the government of the day decides to criminalise the practice, or place deterrents in some other form, this will be hailed by the LGBT community as a step towards not just equality but basic, human dignity.

    The more cynical side of my mind remains with a question though: will the government be able to create a robust enough system of ‘prevention’ which is better than the ‘cure’?

    Andrew Spearman is an award-winning lawyer and Director of A City Law Firm

  • Washington to ban ‘Gay Conversion’ therapy for minors


  • A bill outlawing performing so-called “gay conversion” therapy on minors has been passed in Washington state. House amendments to Bill 5722 were approved by the state’s Senate Saturday, and the legislation will now make its way to the office of Governor Jay Inslee for its final approval, the Associated Press reported. (more…)

  • The Government has refused to make “gay cures” illegal

    Making gay cures a criminal offence is not the forward – apparently

    The British Government has affirmed its position on “gay cures” or conversion therapy. It condemns it, but won’t make the practice of it illegal.

    In responding to a petition, created earlier in 2017,  which attracted 11,000 signatories, the Government said that although it condemned the practice of conversion therapy, it did not believe that making the treatment illegal was the “right way forward”.

    The therapy, which has no evidentiary proof of benefit, has been widely criticised by the professional health industry and is seen as incredibly damaging to the LGBT+ community. The therapy is banned on the NHS.

    This is not the first time the Government has refused to make substantive steps towards the banning of so-called “gay cures”, in 2015 it declined to ban them. 

     

    The Government has refused to make "gay cures" illegal

    In its latest response, responding to the petition, the Department of Health said,

    “There is no evidence that this sort of treatment is beneficial, and indeed it may well cause significant harm to some patients. It is incumbent on professionals working in the National Health Service to ensure that treatment and care, including therapy, is provided to every patient without any form of discrimination.

    “This Government is committed to tackling discrimination towards LGBT people. That is why we have already worked with the main registration and accreditation bodies for psychotherapy and counselling practitioners, including the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), to develop first a consensus statement and then a Memorandum of Understanding committing signatory organisations to a range of activities including training and awareness raising amongst their members in relation to this issue.

    “This Government has already taken the necessary steps to prevent the practice of gay conversion therapy in the UK”.

  • Brazil just ruled that being gay is a disease

    A court in Brazil has ruled that gay cure therapy is legal

    Despite having one of the largest LGBT+ prides in the world, a court in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, has ruled that homosexuality is a disease and that so-called “gay cure” therapy is legal.

    Judge Waldemar Claudio de Carvalho ruled that homosexuality can be treated as a disease and that conversion therapy as a means of curing it, is legal. The ruling has caused widespread condemnation and concern amongst LGBT+ people and their allies.

    The judge overruled a 1999 resolution which outlawed therapists from treating homosexuality.

    The appeal on that resolution was put forward by an evangelical Christian, Rozangela Justino, who was banned from practising after offering conversion therapies.

    A number of high-profile organisations and people have rallied against the ruling saying that they will appeal the decision. Toni Reis, who heads the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Alliance, said the ruling was a step in the wrong direction plans to appeal at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

    Brazil’s psychology council says it would appeal the injunction also.

    Speaking to the Guardian, David Miranda, a gay councillor in Rio de Janeiro said,

    “This decision is a big regression to the progressive conquests that the LBGT community had in recent decades”.

    Brazil also has one of the highest crime and murder rates against LGBT+ people in the world. In 2016 it was recorded that one LGBT+ person was killed every day in Brazil.

     

     

  • This doctor thinks he can “cure” homosexuality

    Meet Doctor Davidson, he thinks he can cure us…

    This doctor thinks he can "cure" homosexuality

    Right people, we’re calling in sick, because this doctor clearly believes that we can be cured.

    Speaking on Good Morning Britain this (formerly gay) Doctor asked where the evidence that homosexuality is “innate” and “unchangeable” was.  Apparently, Doctor Mike Davidson helps up to 14 people a WEEK “locate the trauma that triggered their homosexual feelings”.

    He said,

    “I believe that people are not born gay, that they come into homosexual feelings, and that it is something that in some cases is reversible for people who want to make that the trajectory of their lives.

    “It’s inconsistent with some people’s value systems and they want to be true to themselves. I think we’re here today because there’s clearly a population group who feel they are not comfortable with homosexual expression, and they want out of it”.

    The doctor claims he’s turned away from homosexuality by prayer, counselling and psychotherapy – and has been married to his wife for 35 years.

     

    Piers Morgan, who was presenting the show, along with Susanna Ried, literally burst…

    “We have a word for people like you in this country. We call them bigots! In my view, you are a malevolent and dangerous part of our society!

    “What’s wrong with you? Who are you to say such things?

    “Do you really think homosexuality is something that needs to be cured? Why don’t you shut up, you old bigot! This is utterly ridiculous!”

    “Has it crossed your bigoted mind that gay people may not want to find your path? Maybe they are quite happy being gay and don’t want to be ‘cured of this abomination’ because that is deeply offensive!

    “Why don’t you put a cork in it? I’ve had enough, Dr Michael, just shut up!”

     

    GMB is on ITV weekdays from 6 AM

  • Stephen Crabb: Gay cure support “complete fabrication”

    Stephen Crabb: Gay cure support “complete fabrication”

    PM hopeful Stephen Crabb has said that any suggestion of him being homophobic or that he supports so-called gay cures is “complete fabrication”.

    Embed from Getty Images

    MP Stephen Crabb has said that any suggestion that he supports so-called gay cures or that he is homophobic is a “complete fabrication”. He also called the idea of gay cures reprensible.

    Speaking on the Radio 4 show, Today, the MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire said, “I don’t believe that being gay is a sin” and idea of “gay cure” is “reprehensible”

    As a member of Parliament Stephen Crabb has voted against every piece of legalisation that would protect or equalise the rights of gay and lesbians in the UK.

    In 2007 Crabb voted against the Equalities Act (Sexual Orientation) which protects gay people from discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities, services, education and public functions because of their sexuality.

    In 2013 Crabb voted against allowing same-sex couples the ability to marry. He was then absent for all other votes concerning the interests of LGBT people in the UK, including allowing Armed Forces based outside the UK the ability to marry.

    Crabb has stood by his voting decisions by saying, “It wasn’t a clear-cut vote for me, but I don’t regret any vote I’ve taken.”

    Last week THEGAYUK emailed each of the five candidates for assurances that if they got into power that gay rights and LGBT equalities would not be eroded or rolled back.

    Today, four days on, only Michael Gove’s office has responded.

  • UK Government Refuses To Ban “Gay Cure” Treatments

    The UK’s Conservative Government is refusing to get rid of treatments which aim to “cure” patients of their homosexuality, despite being “firmly opposed” to the controversial treatments.

    (more…)

  • WATCH | The Fight Against Gay Cures In China

    A documentary by AJ+, the Al Jazeera digital video channel has uncovered China’s widespread practice of conversion therapy, or “gay cure”.

    The 8-minute documentary follows a gay man, Yanzi Peng, who launches a lawsuit against a clinic after he experienced their conversion therapy.

    The clinic claimed that they could make gay people heterosexual with the use of hypnosis and electric shock treatment.

    Homosexuality has been legal since 1991 in Hong Kong, and 1996 iin Macau. It was legalised nationwide in 1997. The Chinese Society of Psychiatry declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 2001.

    China has no discrimination protections for its LGBT community.