Gay conversion therapy

saw this on the news last night.......I had no idea this was going on in the UK.

"Plans to ban 'gay conversion therapy'
By Laura Bundock, political correspondent
Gay conversion therapies which try to "cure" people's sexuality will be banned as part of the government's LGBT action plan.

The plan is an attempt to tackle the inequalities faced by members of the LGBT community.

It comes after a large government survey assessed some of the difficulties facing LGBT people living in the UK.

Over 108,000 people responded, making it the biggest study of its kind in the world.

It highlighted how 2% of those who replied had undergone conversion therapy, with a further 5% having been offered it."

https://news.sky.com/story/plans-to-ban-gay-conversion-therapy-11424512

Also in the Sun

"GAY THERAPY BAN
PM vows to ban ‘abhorrent’ conversion therapy as part of new £4.5million initiative to improve the lives of the LGBT community

More than 2,000 people in the UK have had 'conversion therapy' with at least 5,400 offered it, a major Government poll revealed."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6680994/ban-gay-straight-conversion-therapy/

And in NewStatesman

"Late in 2017, an assistant pastor in Anfield, Liverpool recommended to a new member of the congregation that he fast for 24 hours to prepare for weekly prayer therapy sessions to correct his sexuality. This would be part of his “deliverance”, an activity used to cleanse a person of demons and evil spirits. To complement this, he would be expected to attend a secluded three-day course where he could only eat fruit from the church.

This prescription might never come to light if it wasn't for one thing - the new member was in fact journalist Josh Parry, who went undercover at the local Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry. A spokesman for the church told his newspaper, the Liverpool Echo, that the pastor acted outside church guidance and denied the church discriminated against people based on their sexuality. Yet the “deliverance” reported by Parry is only one of the numerous cases that have raised concern over the fact gay conversion therapy is still legal in the UK."

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2018/07/will-uk-ban-gay-conversion-therapy-work

 

Eurgh. I'm so glad they're getting rid of this.

 

Well played, Parry. Well played. I hope the naming and shaming continues.

So many, many parallels to our own situation as PwMEs.

 

I know, right? It's an outrage! If these activists have their way there will be no hope for gay people who want to become straight. Where is the systematic, scientific documentation of harm from conversion therapy? The people who run these programs - who are trustworthy experts and reputable, pious men of the cloth - say that their patients are grateful and become better if they just put in the effort. This is anti-religious bigotry that stigmatizes and oppresses people suffering from metaphysical illnesses!

 

!!

.... if the activists continue their vexatious and threatening behaviour, young people will be reluctant to embark on a career in gay conversion therapy.

.... some churches just turn gay people away. At least we treat gay people with sympathy, and we do our best to try and help them.

"As a recovered gay person, I can attest that its possible to recover. I am shocked at the negativity of all these activists, who seem to want to stay gay for the rest of their lives."

 

They are currently trying to make out that it is all down to religious fanatics but............
from 2009
"British therapists still offer treatments to 'cure' homosexuality

Gay men and women in Britain are being offered controversial treatments to reverse their homosexuality, despite there being no proof that such therapies are effective and fears that they are actually harmful.

A survey of more than 1,300 therapists, psychoanalysts and psychiatrists throughout the country found more than 200 practitioners had attempted to change at least one patient's sexual orientation, while 55 said they were still offering the therapy."

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/mar/26/homosexuality-gay-cure-treatment-orientation

Even worse in the US:
http://factsaboutyouth.com/change-therapy/change-therapy/

 

What do you worry about at night? Some people worry about their careers, others worry about the end of the world. I worry about children who suffer because effective treatment is not available to them. I probably ought to worry about the starving millions or those that die because they cannot get vaccinated. But in the UK, there are children who suffer because they cannot get help for their homosexuality, and this is something we really ought to be able to sort out.

 

Half flippant, half serious. Perhaps we can start referring to (PACE style) CBT and GET as "ME patient conversion therapy"? Where they take patients who can't help being ill from ME and try to convince them that they actually aren't ill and it's just a matter of lifestyle choice?

 

if you replace the word 'homosexuality' with 'CFS' this could easily be a quote from Esther Crawley.....

 

!! Spot on!!

 

Who? Never heard of her. I wrote it first and then she plagiarized me. I have the best words. Why does nobody believe me? Can't you guys tell I'm being super cereal right now?

 

OMG....spot on.....

 

It's a good idea in my opinion. With a particularly clever and pithy phrasing it could be quite impactful.

 

It would be called patient conversion therapy. The goal would be to get the patient to stop identifying as chronically ill and disabled person that requires appropriate care.

There's this magical thinking that thoughts create (biological) reality.

You all know that one of the proponents of gay conversion therapy then went on to work with one of the PACE authors on CBT for CFS, right? Details escape me at the moment though. Peter Tatchell has mentioned this.

 

It would seem the ME community needs to do an intervention with the medical community.

The intervention could be called "Ignorant Conversion Therapy". (tongue in cheek...sort of.)

 

or something catchy like 'the Lightning Process'

 

It's literally that. I'd just call it ME conversion therapy. "You aren't really sick. Being sick is a choice."

... "maybe it's just a phase."

... "have you tried not being sick?"

 

Just asked him. That's the type of thing I'd want to confirm.

 

This issue was on ITV news yesterday with someone called Vicky Beeching, a musician, who says she had to suffer gay conversion therapy as a young person via her church.

She went on to say "the stress lead to her developing an autoimmune condition". I looked her up and she is documented as being diagnosed with CFS but also scleredema which was treated with chemotherapy. The article below uses the term chronic fatigue but everywhere else online it refers to her as having CFS.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=v...me.0.69i59.15858j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrNhqzZ5s-Q