It has been widely reported on other blogs, here and here, for instance. But in case you missed it, DUP MP Iris Robinson, made these homophobic comments:
“I have a very lovely psychiatrist who works with me in my offices and his Christian background is that he tries to help homosexuals – trying to turn away from what they are engaged in,”
And see her comments over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology debate the other week regarding “need for a father”:”You are putting the rights of lesbians above all others in this country and you should hang your heads in shame,”
The homophobic bilge she is spouting isn’t new especially regarding the “curing” of lesbians and gay men. Up until 1973 being gay was considered a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and after intensive campaigning by lesbian and gay activists it was finally removed.
Before that the “cure” involved aversion therapy, a clinical name given to torture and the criminalisation of gay men (until 1967 and equalised age of consent in 2001)
The desperate need by these shrinks to cling onto the belief that being gay can be cured is still alive and kicking. In 2001, there was the Spitzer study (Spitzer concluded that “some highly motivated gay people could change their sexual orientation through therapy or other means”)
Though, worryingly, there is a category of “sexual disorder not otherwise specified” kicking around in the DSM-IV that includes “persistent and marked distress about one’s sexual orientation” and “gender identity disorder”. The blog, Bird of Paradox, gives a thorough examination of the shenanigans of APA (American Psychiatric Association) with “kickbacks” from pharmaceutical companies, giving “advice” to interrogators at Guantanamo and the “debates” over Gender Identity Disorder for the DSM-V (May 2012).
And there we have it, homophobic god squaders and shrinks still believing that lesbians and gay men can be “cured”. Here’s a cure for homophobia: Mind your own business….!!
