Horrific tails of gay man’s electroshock treatment endured at Belfast universy

GAY 'NVERSN THERAPY': MAN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS MANDS APOLOGY
GAY MEN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS 'TO CURE HOMOSEXUALY' AT QUB
SHOCK THE GAY AWAY: SECRETS OF EARLY GAY AVERSN THERAPY REVEALED (PHOTOS)
MORMON 'GAY CURE' STUDY USED ELECTRIC SHOCKS AGAST HOMOSEXUAL FEELGS
HORRIFIC TAILS OF GAY MAN’S ELECTROSHOCK TREATMENT ENDURED AT BELFAST UNIVERSY

GAY 'NVERSN THERAPY': MAN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS MANDS APOLOGY

A gay man who went through months of electric shock "therapy" a universy psychology partment 50 years ago has mand an - not his real name - went to his GP for advice the 1970s, when he beme aware of his sexualy his doctor said he knew someone who uld "cure" him.

GAY MEN GIVEN ELECTRIC SHOCKS 'TO CURE HOMOSEXUALY' AT QUB

'Hefty electric shock'Homosexualy had only been -crimalised 1967, and mastream society was still eply disapprovg of the, now 74, remembers beg told that "even havg a sex change" would be better for him than ntug to live as a gay man, and so he mted to the prcribed treatment which he had been guaranteed would work. " The ia of the treatment was to associate homosexual sire wh pa and unpleasant feelgs. "He believ that one of the rearchers "outed" him as gay to his school.

I was fely termated bee he thought I was gay.

Banng nversn therapy In 2018, the UK ernment announced that "gay nversn therapi" were to be banned, as part of a plan to improve the liv of gay and transgenr people. Media ptn, Gareth went to gay nversn therapy for four years and says ma him 'feel broken' "You nnot cure beg LGBT, you nnot erase om society. ""In this untry is illegal to tra a dog g electric shocks, but is not illegal to e electric shocks on a gay man, " he said.

SHOCK THE GAY AWAY: SECRETS OF EARLY GAY AVERSN THERAPY REVEALED (PHOTOS)

"My church was a Prbyterian church, so that was que difficult when I realised I was gay, " he told BBC News NI. Image source, Dr Tommy DicksonImage ptn, Dr Tommy Dickson said that e of electril aversn therapy had been almost totally abandoned by the mid-1970s the UK"When I was about 15, I realised I am one of the people who are homosexuals and who are reviled really by the society I grew up , so was a big shock to me. The aim of electril aversn therapy was for him to associate homosexual sire wh pa or unpleasant feelgs.

"You would then associate any gay, homosexual feelgs wh somethg unpleasant - a ndned reflex really. "John was also enuraged to date women while unrgog the a rearch paper published the Ulster Medil Journal 1973, amics om the partments of Mental Health, Social Studi and Psychology at QUB said their e of electril aversn therapy was rare by that they did still e evince treatment worked"We have a particular tert the e of methods for producg heterosexual tert exclive homosexuals, " they reported. "The most fluential factor rcg the e of the treatments was the growg gay liberatn movement as queer men and women were ung and refutg that sickns label that had been attributed to them, " he source, PAcemakerImage ptn, Thoands attend the Belfast Pri para 2019A spokperson for Queen's Universy Belfast said that, regrettably, aversn therapy was ed a number of suatns the past.

"Luckily, fairly soon afterwards I did start to meet some gay people and my life changed pletely then and sce then thgs have been much better.

MORMON 'GAY CURE' STUDY USED ELECTRIC SHOCKS AGAST HOMOSEXUAL FEELGS

Wh the recent announcement om Exod Internatnal that is closg s doors, and wh s lears offerg apologi for their actns, the LGBT muny is now left wonrg, "Can this really be the end of ex-gay reparative therapy? " While the dt settl on all of this, we have to remd ourselv that wasn't too long ago that reparative therapi had ls to do wh prayg the gay away and more to do wh physilly removg . Before the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) classified homosexualy as a mental disorr 1973, aversn therapy was ed routely hop that would prevent or elimate homosexual behavr.