Gay nversn therapy: 'I thought beg straight would make me happy' - BBC Three

Contents:

• GAY NVERSN THERAPY: 'I THOUGHT BEG STRAIGHT WOULD MAKE ME HAPPY'
• MY 'HORRENDO' GAY NVERSN UK
• GAY NVERSN THERAPY IS STILL HAPPENG THE UK
• SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS
• SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS
• SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS
• SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS
• THE DAY I MET A ‘GAY NVERSN THERAPIST’

GAY NVERSN THERAPY: 'I THOUGHT BEG STRAIGHT WOULD MAKE ME HAPPY'

Acrdg to the Brish Psychologil Society (BPS), nversn therapy - sometim lled "reparative therapy" or "gay cure therapy" - tri to change someone's sexual orientatn or genr inty. In practice, means tryg to stop or supprs someone om beg gay, or om intifyg as a different genr to their sex rerd at birth.

Instead, I was the thro of the gay nversn therapy that would domate my early 20s and leave me forever changed. While many liberal reform Jewish people accept homosexualy nowadays, some Orthodox Jews still oppose on the grounds that is said to be forbidn by relig teachgs.

That was all I wanted back 's relign ma her feel sperate to lead a 'normal' lifeDpe the advanc on LGBTQ+ issu we’ve seen the UK and elsewhere the past five s, gay nversn therapy - a psdoscientific practice that attempts to change sexual orientatn, or rce feelgs of sexual attractn to others of the same sex - is still rried out many untri. Although I grew up London an open-md fay, I didn’t know anyone who intified as gay, lbian or bisexual. I told him that I wished I uld jt be straight and my life be ls one of our nversatns, he said there was a way for me to fd ‘happs’ - that someone he knew Israel offered gay nversn therapy.

MY 'HORRENDO' GAY NVERSN UK

None of knew anyone who had been through gay nversn and we had no ia of the damage uld do.

In my se, we were searchg for a s I’d supposedly mted a past life that might have ‘ma me gay’. My dad, wracked wh guilt over how badly the therapy seemed to have affected me, was the first one to tell me to stop and experiment wh the gay world.

Havg their support gave me the strength to move forward wh my 's supportive parents host pri themed Shabbat dnersThe days, my parents host gay pri Shabbat dners, help other parents of queer kids, and are currently tryg to fd me a partner by askg everyone they know - rabbis clud - if they happen to know of any nice lbians. Details of a new law that would stop unsellors providg gay-to-straight nversn therapy the UK have been published. But 2009 a survey found 16% of UK therapists had attempted the new bill, put forward by Swansea Wt MP Gerat Davi, would ban the says: "I n't get rid of all gay-to-straight nversn therapy, but what this will do is make people aware of the issue.

GAY NVERSN THERAPY IS STILL HAPPENG THE UK

He provis what he lls "support" for people unfortable wh beg homosexual Northern Ireland and tells Newsbeat he "nverted" himself many years ago.

The Profsnal Standards Authory believe that system provis sufficient protectn for Rafik Taibjee is a GP and chair of the Gay and Lbian Associatn of Doctors and Dentists.

In a statement the Department of Health said "Beg gay is not an illns and should never be treated as somethg which is curable - which is why we strongly oppose so lled gay to straight 'nversn' therapy. 'Louise' Wt YorkshireLouise says she was blackmailed to receivg "treatment" for beg gay 2007 by her evangelil church. "Brad, om Illois, liv Wt Midlands"When I first disvered I was gay, I was sred.

SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS

I knew beg gay was not gog to be accepted my muny so I wanted to do my very bt to change . I'd have done anythg to stop beg gay.

"My GP referred me to a psychiatrist London where I agreed to go for 'aversn therapy' to 'cure my mental illns', to stop beg gay. My wife, like me, knew I had to fd a different way than electrocutg myself out of beg gay. "Beg gay has ma me happy and 38 years later my gayns is celebrated wh receivg an MBE for servic to mic and the LGBT Communy, when I take Janice my ex-wife, Mike, my prev partner of 25 years and my man Raphael wh me.

SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS

"Eduted, unenlightened doctors still peddle 'gay cur'. He'd been through gay nversn therapy at a very posh hoe Birmgham. Aimg to force gay people to turn straight, nversn therapy has long been ntroversial and lled a psdo-scientific practice.

SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS

What is gay nversn therapy? It is based on an assumptn that beg lbian, gay, or bisexual is a mental illns that n be “cured”. A ban on nversn therapy has been buildg for some time wh former Prime Mister Thera May vowg to ban the “abhorrent” practice of tryg to turn gay people straight unr an actn plan to improve the liv of LGBT people.

SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS

This would mean that nversn therapy for gay, lbian, bisexual or any other same-sex oriented person would be illegal but those facg genr dysphoria would not. A ernment survey 2017 found that transgenr people are twice as likely to be offered nversn therapy than gay or bisexual people.

Many untri across the world have already banned gay nversn therapy, cludg Brazil, Ecuador and Malta. In this report, published the June 2021 issue of Cosmopolan UK, we vtigated the dangero practice of nversn therapy and explored the unthkable damage n do, provg jt how necsary the ban on gay nversn therapy Hannah* pulled up to the grand Geian hoe, she thought everythg was gog to be OK.

THE DAY I MET A ‘GAY NVERSN THERAPIST’

She wasn’t allowed to speak about beg gay. Acrdg to Vige, the ia that non-heterosexual people need to be “fixed” ntribut to a “damagg homophobic rhetoric” that only worsens an dividual’s mental health.

”Young mdsWhen Harry’s* parents found text msag on his phone revealg that he was gay, they bundled him to a r and drove him to the home of a man they knew om church. “He was tellg me that I wasn’t really gay, ” Harry rells. Havg grown up a relig hoehold, Harry believed him, and sat terror as the man put his hand on his cht and tried to “ph” the homosexualy out of his body.

“His ia was that if he st the mon out of me, the gayns went wh the mon, ” Harry rells.

“It really ma me qutn as a child, ‘Am I actually gay?