The Muppet Show was banned from TV in Saudi Arabia because one of its stars was a pig.

And you think that gays love to live in fantasy!

We always keep coming back to this, don’t we? Yes, this is a free country, and people have a perfect right to change their sexual orientation if they want to. The question is not whether they have the right but whether they can. If they can’t, then their right to change, however inalienable in theory, is for all practical purposes as meaningless as their right to change the colour of their eyes. Anyone who chooses “reparative therapy” or an “ex-gay” program has the right to know (1) that the likelihood of such “treatment” issuing in a change in orientation is somewhere in the range between tiny and zero, and (2) that this kind of “treatment” has the definite potential for harm. Their right to this information is every bit as important as their theoretical right to “choose to change”.

Johnk’s reply – The reality is that some Christians think they can change a person’s sexual orientation through reparative therapy. . . True Freedom Trust (TFT) exists with a plethora of other organisations to refer people to counsellors across the UK who practice reparative counselling or psychotherapy.

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Cecile wrote – Mr. Strudwick is a weak person, with very little self-esteem, and he is trying to call attention to people who are either misinformed or ignorant.

Johnk’s reply – Conducting a character assassination on Mr Strudwick is not an argument, this highlights how you are not prepared to engage in reasoned debate about this issue

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Cecile wrote – When he says, “Critics say it does not work and can lead to severe mental health problems,” he does not make clear who the critics are. Where are your numbers? We need some statistics to support your arguments.

Johnk’s reply – The Royal College of Psychiatrists made a statement based on analysis of peer reviewed research. The RCP stated that there is no evidence that reparative therapy works, and if practiced is likely to lead to an increase in anxiety, depression or even suicide in LGBT people.

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Cecile wrote – I believe that homosexuality is mental disorder, but for political reasons the psychological associations erased that term from the books because of gay pressure.

Johnk’s reply – Your beliefs are a life style choice. Psychiatrists and psychologists removed homosexuality as a disorder from DSM –IV and ICD – 10 because based on scientific research they could find no reason to keep referring to homosexuality as a disorder; homosexuals were found to be just as psychological and emotional well based as heterosexuals.

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Cecile wrote – These gays do not want recognize it; they love to live in fantasy.

Johnk’s reply – What do gays not recognise? . . . And what is this fantasy that gays like to live in. Cecile you are not being very clear here.

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Cecile wrote – Why can’t people have the choice to change if they want to? This is a free country. If the homosexual person’s best interest is to stay gay, let the rest choose to change their lives for good if that’s what they want to do.

Johnk’s reply – Reparative therapy may lead to an increase in anxiety, depression or even suicide. Cecile, why do you insist that homosexuals should have a right to undergo a treatment which may be emotional, or psychologically damaged them; or even kill them.

But I must thank you for the best pot-kettle-black laugh I’ve had this evening (“this gay journalist is biased and out of touch with reality”).

Ex-gay therapy pamphlets do find their way to vulnerable high school students and the results are devastating both for the vulnerable teenager and for his/her family.

A case in point, followed by a revealing survey from anyone who cares to care:

http://www.care2.com/causes/education/blog/promoting-ex-gay-therapy-in-schools/

Bottom line: anyone who thinks they have a democratic right to ruin people’s lives needs to have his head examined, which is exactly what this article is proposing, innit.

Another case in point: Richard Cohen’s ‘business ventures’ selling ex-gay therapy in Uganda.

“How do you suggest they get rid of their unwanted desires?”
Do what most men do and have a wank. You should know, you sound like a professional.

“People ARE going to get treatment.”
Yes, by God-botherers that want to impose their religious beliefs upon people that already have psychological problems, simply compounding their situation with guilt complexes.

Only in YOUR mind. It means that somebody is attracted to both their own sex and the opposite sex. And that’s all it means. Bisexual people are just as discerning as gay and straight people. Just because they have an attraction to both men and women doesn’t mean they sleep with them all. People – gay, straight and bisexual – CAN be promiscuous, but that has as much to do with their sexuality as the colour of their eyes – ie nothing…

RobN – how do you suggest they get rid of their unwanted desires?

Iris – people ARE going to get treatment.

Hmmm, have you had experience of that yourself? No-one who’s happily married seeks therapy; no-one can suddenly ‘turn gay’ (again, do you have some personal experience of this??). However, there are a number of people who are gay and married to someone of the opposite sex and very unhappy – for their spouse’s sake aswell as their own – having got married because they felt compelled to/thought it was what they should do/had no-one to help them understand their sexuality. That’s very sad.

Everyone has problems from time to time. Sidestepping or ignoring the issue won’t make them go away. ‘Conversion’ is simply denial, and it might camouflage the issue for a while, but the problem is still there, and the person is still gay. When it does come back – (‘when’, not ‘if’) – it will devastate that person. What these cranks are doing is not only immoral, it is downright cruel.

Uh huh. I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Presumably, being straight Stewart, you sleep with every woman you see? No? Well, you must do because you’re heterosexual, see, and you’re attracted to the opposite sex. Makes as much sense as the crap you just wrote there. You really do have problems, don’t you? Have YOU ever spoken to a therapist? That’s not a taunt – I feel you need help with your prejudices and your low self-esteem, which manifests itself by illogical attacks on other people.

Yes I would deny them it as I would deny someone with cancer requesting me to perform a voodoo dance to treat them.

Go on believing that a walking dead Jewish deity who was his own father although he always existed, commits suicide by cop, although he didn’t really die, in order to give himself permission not to send you to an eternal place of torture that he created for you, but instead to make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh, drink his blood, and telepathically promise him you accept him as your master, so he can cleanse you of an evil force that is present in mankind because a rib-woman and a mud-man were convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

Rehan – people who want help getting rid of unwanted homosexual desire are “deluded or disturbed” are they?

dtnorth – you just made that up. If someone’s happily married, the last thing they need is thinking they are turning ‘gay’. Would you deny them treatment if they want it?

Chester – bisexuality is a particularly severe form of promiscuity.