"Did you have a difficult birth?" she asks. No, I say. Why?

"It's just something I have noticed. Often [with homosexuality] it is quite traumatic, the baby was put into intensive care and because of the separation from the mother there can be that lack of attachment."

She moves on. "Any Freemasonry in the family?"

Reparative therapy is a topic that needs to be treated very seriously by gay and religious communities. Often we treat these "therapists" as oddities, crazies, or groups that are so small as to not warrant attention. We easily dismiss it as quackery and therefore forget those who suffer through the process.

Yet I think that this type of "therapy" is the most dangerous type of homophobia. Their arguments are plausible to those who feel shame around their sexuality, and their misguided psycho therapeutic methods are covered in loving language that is more covert than the "God hates f-gs" variety.

I pray that these conversion therapists are increasingly exposed for what they are, and that gay and Christian people will become educated about their methods and those they leave in their wake.

Wow! What nonsense!

"We advise fathers, 'If you don't hug your sons, some other man will.' We train the mothers to back off.'"

It's too late! Someone should have told me years ago to back off.

My first thought when I read the headline was, "Does the NHS pay for the therapy?" Yes, in the guise of treatment for depression and anxiety.

June Butler

Some people will do anything to change the universe so they don't have to. Unfortunately other people usually pay for it.

David tells me he runs a clinic which helps men "reach their heterosexual potential". He won't treat lesbians. "I have resolved my own sexuality," he says, explaining that he is now married with children, and gives me his business card: it reads, "I took the road less travelled."

***

"But the men you were having sex with or falling in love with are just as wounded as you," he adds. "They cannot complete you in the same way as a woman. What would complete you is sex with a heterosexual man but a heterosexual man isn't going to want to have sex with you, so it's that desire to get what you can never obtain."

Good Lord, it's easy to see where THIS would go (if the reporter had actually been seeking treatment). I bet you dollars-to-donuts (pounds to scones?) that "David" ABUSES his patients: "I'm a heterosexual man now. Having sex with me will save you!" [After a few sessions of "grooming" through Skype, I bet "David" then says his patient---broad-shouldered, perhaps? {*}---need in-person (hands-on?) treatment.]

Barf.

{*} I see I am correct. Sorry for this porn, but

"Close your eyes and focus on that arousal you're feeling down in your genitals," he says. "I want you to hear, as a man, as I look at your body, I see strong shoulders and a strong chest, I see a man who has an attractive body and I want you just to notice the arousal you feel as you hear me talking about that.

Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. And furthermore, Yuck!

These reparative SICKOS need therapy far more than do their patients! >:-/

JC Fisher