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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.

  • Call For New Psychology Standards For LGBT Community

    Collaborating counselling psychologists at Regent’s University London, Dr Markus Bidell and Professor Martin Milton, are calling for the development of international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) psychology and psychotherapy standards.

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    Both academics say that LGBT people encounter serious mental health disparities that can be critically worsened by discriminatory and prejudicial LGBT policies and human rights violations.

    In an international symposium at the British Psychology Society’s (BPS) annual conference in Liverpool over 5-7 May, Dr Bidell and Professor Milton will highlight the psychosocial problems negatively impacting many LGBT individuals, along with the historic and current role of psychologists in addressing LGBT civil rights in the UK and US.

    Most significantly, they add, prejudice and discriminatory policies in many countries are directly connected to mental health problems and civil rights violations experienced by many LGBT people.

    Dr Bidell explains:

    “UK and US psychological organisations have played a defining role in furthering LGBT human rights by supporting professional policies, clinical treatment, research, and training which reject biased perspectives that LGBT people were mentally disordered, immoral, or social deviants.

    “Current psychological standards in the US and UK affirm LGBT people have a sexual orientation and gender identity that is normal, healthy, and legitimate.

    “These shifts amongst US and UK psychologists have had tremendously positive social, policy, and legal implications for LGBT civil rights, such as same-sex marriage, discrediting conversion therapy, employment protection and transgender equality.

    “However, we’ve been shocked by the number of international psychologists who’s thinking is not just outdated in this area, but extremely damaging to LGBT people. By creating an international set of LGBT psychological standards we hope to strengthen and advance equality, public policy, and human rights for LGBT across nations.”

    Professor Milton adds:

    “The psychology standards we are proposing mirror the very best research, treatment and training available. Our goal is to create an established code of LGBT affirmative psychology, which will strengthen LGBT equality in our countries and advance similar types of LGBT civil rights and public policy advancements in countries that still criminalise and pathologise LGBT people.”

     

  • London “Gay Cure” Event Cancelled After 40,000 Say No Way

    An event that aimed to help gay people “Overcome” Their Sexuality by the Seventh Day Adventist Church has been cancelled after 40,000 people signed a petition to stop it.

    The Seventh Day Adventist Church had planned to bring a seminar to London that was aimed at people who have “struggled” with same-sex attraction. The petition against the move was signed by over 40,000 people.

    According to the advert, three people Mike Carducci, Wayne Blakely and Danielle Harrison have found “redemption, victory, healing and freedom from their lifestyle.” and want to talk to members of the public about their “struggles” with homosexuality.

    Kirsten Lundqvist the communications and media director of South England Conference of Seventh-day Adventist said, “A decision was taken on Monday, 13 April to cancel the ‘Holy Sexuality’ Conference originally planned for London, 21-25 April 2015.

    “Seventh-day Adventists are a people of peace who believe in hope and dialogue. However, it appeared that rather than drawing people together the conference had the potential to divide. The Adventist Church recognises that the individuals invited to speak at the Holy Sexuality Conference have compelling life stories to share but equally appreciate that there are those who take a different point of view.”

    “We are disappointed that in a society that values freedom of speech and divergence of opinion that there are those whose wish it is to silence individuals who hold a different point of view to their own.”

    Speaking to GSN one of organisers of the event Anamaria, had said, “These three people have overcome what many people are still struggling with, the people who felt so unloved. For them, they have moved out of this lifestyle and embraced Christianity,’ she said.

    “It’s like committing adultery. This conference will teach homosexuals how to overcome similar habits.”

  • White House Releases Powerful Video About The Harm Of “Gay Cures”

    In the wake of President Obama’s historic statement this week speaking out against gay “conversion therapy”, a group of White House staffers led by Amanda Simpson, Executive Director of the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives, and the first openly transgender woman Presidential appointee ever, created a video to discuss the dangers of this harmful practice.

    Also on the video are some of the President’s most senior advisers including Valerie Jarrett and also Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Douglas Brooks, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. In addition to this, the U.S. Surgeon General  Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, M.D. released a statement today calling for state and federal action to protect minors from conversion therapy.

    “Being gay is not a disorder. Being transgender is not a malady that requires a cure. Had I been Leelah Alcorn’s physician, I would have told her exactly that. And that’s the message I want other doctors, nurses, health professionals, and public health leaders to help get out to parents and children who may be confronting these issues.”

    by Roger Walker-Dack

  • Church Plans Event For People Who Want To “Overcome” Their Sexuality

    The Seventh Day Adventist Church is planning to bring a seminar to London that is aimed at people who have “struggled” with same-sex attraction.

    According to the advert, three people Mike Carducci, Wayne Blakely and Danielle Harrison have found “redemption, victory, healing and freedom from their lifestyle.” and want to talk to members of the public about their “struggles” with homosexuality.

    The advert also claims,

    “This conference will be invaluable for those who are struggling with their sexuality or for those who wish to find out more about issues surrounding sexuality and same sex attraction to reach out to others.”

    GayStarNews has called the free event, called Holy Sexuality Conference a “gay cure summit”.

    Speaking in a video Carducci spoke about how God had anointed him to start a ministry called Exceed, which stands for “Excellence in Christ through evangelism for the erotically defiled.”

    Speaking to GSN one of organisers of the event, said Anamaria, “These three people have overcome what many people are still struggling with, the people who felt so unloved. For them, they have moved out of this lifestyle and embraced Christianity,’ she said.

    “It’s like committing adultery. This conference will teach homosexuals how to overcome similar habits.”

  • President Obama Supports Ban On Conversion Therapy For Minors

    In a groundbreaking statement issued from The White House last night President Obama responded to a ‘We the People’ petition urging the government to Enact ‘Leelah’s Law to Ban All LGBTQ Conversion Therapy’ after it had reached more than 120,000 signatures.

    The President is quoted “Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let’s say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he’s held as long as he can remember. Soon, perhaps, he will decide it’s time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us — on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.”

     

    His White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett added,

    “We share your concern about its potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer youth…As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this Administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors…This Administration believes that young people should be valued for who they are, no matter what they look like, where they’re from, the gender with which they identify, or who they love.”

    Leelah Alcorn was a 17-year-old transgender youth, who stunned her friends and a vast Internet audience in December when she threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer after writing in an online suicide note that religious therapists had tried to convert her back to being a boy.

    In an interview with the New York Times, Ms. Jarrett said Mr. Obama had been moved by the story of Ms. Alcorn’s suicide. But she said the problem went far beyond Ms. Alcorn.

    “It was tragic, but I will tell you, unfortunately, she has a lot of company,” Ms. Jarrett said. “It’s not the story of one young person. It is the story of countless young people who have been subjected to this.

    It also marks another step forward for the President too whose ideas about gay marriage had “evolved”. But he now supports same-sex marriage and has sought greater equality of treatment for gay men and lesbians in the government and the private work force. In his first term, he pushed the Pentagon to end the notorious ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy that had kept gay service members from serving openly.

  • No One Is Born Gay: Says US Gay Cure Group On Billboard

    A US-based “gay cure” organisation, PFOX.org has bought ad space on a billboard in Virginia, which proclaims no one is born gay.

    Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays have bought billboard ad space in Richmond, VA, that say that gay people aren’t born that way.

    Writing on their website PFOX states,

    “Identical twins have the same genes or DNA. They are nurtured in equal prenatal conditions. If homosexuality is caused by genetics or prenatal conditions and one twin is gay, the co-twin should also be gay … because identical twins are always genetically identical, homosexuality cannot be genetically dictated. No-one is born gay.”

    According to their website, thousands of individuals have made the decision to leave ‘the homosexual life’ and can confirm that change is possible.

    So-called ‘gay cures’ have long been debunked by doctors and scientists. Last year Doctor Christian Jessen filmed a documentary for Channel 4, where he uncovered various treatments to ‘cure’ homosexuality. All of which he found to be useless, and with no scientific proof that they worked.

    Gay cure can range from reparative therapy to ‘shock’ treatments. In July a man who was ‘treated’ for homosexuality in the 1970s, talked to the BBC about his ordeal administered by the NHS and the damage it had done to his life. The 69-year-old said the treatment had made him feel that he was, ‘going to pass from this life without ever having a full relationship with a human being.’

    A statement from Jamie Machut, Vice President of Lamar Advertising Company, the owners of the billboard responded to criticism about allowing the advertisement saying,

    “There are no plans for billboard to come down,

    “Please keep in mind that the advertising is a message from PFOX and not Lamar Advertising Company. We support the First Amendment right of advertisers and believe that it is in the best interest of our company and the communities we serve to accept advertising copy openly.”

  • Listen as a gay man talks about “shock” cure given by 1970’s NHS

    A gay man who was given electric shock treatments on the NHS in the 1970s has spoken to BBC Radio 5.

    In the 1970s the National Health Service (NHS) offered a ‘cure’ to homosexuality in the guise of ‘Electric Shock Avoidance Therapy’.

    ‘John’ from Birmingham talks openly to Victoria Derbyshire about the ‘false hope’ the treatment gave him. The 69-year-old said the treatment had made him feel that he was, ‘going to pass from this life without ever having a full relationship with a human being.’

    Homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, 1981 in Scotland and 1982 in Northern Ireland.

    In 1973 homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in the UK.

  • Liberty Counsel: Some Homosexuality Caused By Abuse Of A Paedophile

    The founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel says that many gay people develop unwanted attractions because of childhood abuse.

    A ‘Gay Cure’ ban will stand in California after the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a law that bans conversion therapy. The therapy is aimed at trying to change the sexuality of gay people under the age of 18. However the court ruled that banning this kind of therapy did not violate free speech rights and that it had an interest in banning treatments it considered harmful.

    A non-profit Christian legal aid group, Liberty Counsel, which had petitioned the Supreme court to take the hearing argued that there was no scientific basis to say that gay cure therapy was harmful.

    Many religious groups still argue that homosexuality is not a natural part of humanity and that a person can change their orientation with therapy. Liberty Counsel also spends its time and resources on fighting against same-sex marriage, civil unions and adoption by the LGBT community.

    ‘I am deeply saddened for the families we represent and for the thousands of children that our professional clients counsel, many of whom developed these unwanted attractions because of abuse of a pedophile. The minors we represent do not want to act on same-sex attractions, nor do they want to engage in such behavior.

    ‘They are greatly benefiting from this counseling. Their grades have gone up, their self-esteem has improved, and their relationships at home are much improved,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.

    ‘These children have been victimized twice – first by the likes of Jerry Sandusky, and second by legislators and judges who have essentially barged into their private therapy rooms and told them that they must pursue their unwanted and dangerous same-sex sexual attractions and behavior,” said Staver.

    ‘The minors we represent do not want to act on same-sex attractions,’he said, ‘nor do they want to engage in such behavior. They are greatly benefiting from this counseling.’

    Mr Staver also suggested that the fight for gay convertion therapy was far from over saying,’I can assure you the battle over change therapy is far from over. We will be back.’

  • OPINION: Cure Me I’m Gay – A Reflection

    Channel Four aired “Cure me, I’m gay” in which Dr Christian Jessen went undercover to see what gay conversion therapies are offered.

    Over the course of the programme we saw him vomiting over himself, using self-help techniques, attend an exorcism and colour in a brain with wax crayons to show where his same sex desires lay. Predictably the explanations offered were around that all gay men have a distant father or were abused as a child. By the end of the programme, the good doctor retook a test to see where his sexual attraction was. He was still 100% gay.

    Conversion therapy has been around in many forms and for as long as therapy itself. Previously electro shock therapy and aversion therapy were the most well-known forms. It speaks volumes that the American Psychiatric Association, UK council for psychotherapy and the BACP have all spoken out against the so called “reparative” therapies in the past.

    In 2012 the British association of Counsellors and psychotherapist’s chose to write directly to its members to advise that it now opposes ‘any psychological treatment such as ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy which are based upon the assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder, or based on the premise that the client/patient should change his/her sexuality.’

    As this is the largest professional body of psychotherapists it was an important move and showed that as an industry, therapists were opposed to any kind of therapy that does not respect and support sexual orientation.

    In the past there have been some pretty horrific examples of conversion therapy:

    • In 2012, GP Marc Craddock, a doctor in Sydney Australia was struck off for prescribing a chemical castration drug for use as a gay cure to an 18 year old man.
    • In 2012, Lesley Pilkington, a Christian psychotherapist appealed against a BACP ruling that she was negligent for offering to change a client’s sexuality.
    • Dr Paul Miller would encourage clients to become sexually aroused in therapy sessions and believed that all homosexuality stemmed from the lack of a father figure. He previously ran the Abeo umbrella organisation for therapists looking to practise gay conversion therapy
    • During an undercover investigation back in 2010 for the Independent, reporter Patrick Studwick was told that it was “very Likely” that he had been abused as child and this had caused his homosexuality, oh and AIDS can be cured by prayer.
    These are the types of people that say that I’m mentally ill or under a prolonged psychosis.

    I think it is worth revisiting Freud at this point. Sigmund Freud is of course the founding father of psychiatry. In 1935, a mother wrote to him asking him to cure her son’s sexuality. Freud’s response was:

    “Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them. (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime –and a cruelty, too.”

    As a therapist myself I find it abhorrent that in 2014 reparative therapy is still offered. To think that clients who are clearly suffering from a huge amount of shame and guilt over their sexuality that they would go to a therapist is heart-breaking.

    To think they are delivered to a therapist who would not help and support them in their journey towards self-acceptance but instead strengthen the belief that something is wrong angers me more than I can ever express. The programme certainly offered some good discussion but all in all just highlighted that conversion therapy is flawed and shows no evidence of being effective, helpful or of any value to those undertaking it.

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • OPINION | A Ban on Gay-to-Straight Conversion Therapy Can’t Come Soon Enough

    A new bill put forward by Swansea West MP Geraint Davies looks to ban gay-to-straight conversion therapy in the United Kingdom (UK).

    See the BBC Newsbeat article – My ‘horrendous’ gay conversion in the UK article.

    Gay-to-Straight Conversion Therapy Irresponsible & Damaging
    The practise is not only irresponsible, but potentially damaging to those who are subjected to gay-to-straight conversion therapy. Many people struggle with being gay and coming to terms with it can be an uphill struggle.

    Being gay is not a choice, it is not an illness, and therefore is not something you can change or cure. The sooner someone can come to terms with that the better it is for them, only when then align themselves with who they actually are will they find true happiness in life.

    By giving someone even the slightest hope that they can change what is innately them is not only wrong, but wholly irresponsible. There are many people who have tried to change their sexuality with no success, using all sorts of therapies and rituals. The failure of such gay-to-straight conversion therapies and rituals only cause further issues and anxieties for the person concerned.

    People Need Support in Coming to Terms With Who They Are
    Any counselling or therapy should concentrate on helping people come to terms with who they are and support them in understanding that being gay is natural for some people and can’t be changed. Unfortunately a lot of people do not get help with this and go through many internal struggles over many years, fighting a battle which they won’t win.

    If gay-to-straight conversion therapy worked would we not have heard more about all the successes? From my own experience of coming to terms with being gay I now know the fight I had against my innate sexuality was never going to be one that I was going to win, all it was a lot of struggle and heartache, I wished I just accepted it a lot earlier.

    With psychologists confirming that gay-to-straight conversion therapy is potentially dangerous and harmful, and that there are therapists out their attempting gay-to-straight conversion therapy a ban on this can’t come soon enough. Promoting acceptance of who you are is the only way forward for the health and wellbeing of those concerned.

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, it’s management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

     

  • “Gay Cure” app still available on Google Play despite 91,000 signatures

    Setting Captives Free, a controversial smartphone App, which offers to ‘cure’ people of their homosexuality is still available to download on the Google Play store despite a growing petition asking Google to remove the app.

    91,000 people have signed an online petition at AllOut.org asking Internet giant Google to remove an offending App, that offers users a ‘freedom from the bondage of homosexuality’

    The App which claims to have already helped over 500,000 people ‘escape impurity, over-eating, substance abuse, gambling, smoking and more’, was removed last week from the Apple iTunes store, but Google has yet to remove the App.

    A statement from AllOut.org writes,

    ‘UPDATE: After just 24 hours the app has disappeared from the iTunes store! Only Google is left with the harmful app still available in their online marketplace. It’s working – keep up the pressure by signing and sharing!

    Gay ‘cures’? There shouldn’t be an app for that. But, there’s a new one called “Setting Captives Free,” available in both the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores, meant to teach you how to stop being gay.

    It’s a 60-day course that tells gay people they are not “born this way” and offers to help them find “freedom from the bondage of homosexuality.”

    These so-called treatments can cause terrible harm to lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people, or anyone forced to try to change who they are or who they love.

    Apple and Google have policies against these kinds of apps but so far this one has escaped their notice. Sign now to tell them to drop this and all other gay ‘cure’ apps!’

    The App, was available from Apple’s iTunes however the company removed the App after just one day of petitioning.

     

    To add your name to the petition CLICK HERE