Doctor faces probe over claims homeopathy can cure homosexuality
A doctor is facing a probe in Switzerland after claiming he can cure homosexuality with homeopathy.
The Geneva-based Jean Yves Henry, who is reportedly a licensed GP, made the extraordinary claim on his website.
He wrote that homosexuality “is not a pathology, but a particular symptom (lifestyle choice) of patients.”
(Stock image)
Henry claimed that “homosexuality is a way of avoiding this reality of the difference between the sexes” and that homeopathic medicine “contains remidies… attraction for a person of the same sex.”
The doctor recommended three separate homeopathic treatments to deal with the apparent symptoms of homosexuality, including “immaturity and addiction” and lust.
Both homeopathy and gay ‘cure’ therapy rely on junk pseudoscience that has no basis in scientific fact, but it is rare for the two to cross paths.
The French-born doctor has doubled down on his beliefs, telling RTS: “Homosexuality is a symptom like any other, like a headache or hay fever. I don’t understand what the problem is.”
Geneva health minister Mauro Poggia has asked for a probe into the doctor, The Local reports.
(Stock image)
Poggia said: “For him, it would seem that homosexuality is an illness to cure. This element is enough to justify opening an investigation.”
The doctor has since updated his website with a rebuttal.
He wrote: “This short specialised professional article [has been] quickly relayed by the media and made views of our site jump!
“The doctor who cured homosexuality with homeopathy! This catchy title, intended to cause a stir, is far from reality.
“We regret of course that the reporter did not first contact us to have explained the approach of homeopathy: the symptom of ‘homosexuality’ is only one of the 64,000 symptoms we work on daily.
“This ten-year-old article, which had never been controversial at the professional level, was primarily intended to make our students reflect on the relationship between medical remedies and behavioural symptoms.
“The attentive homeopath will cross this symptom with others presented by the patient, in order to find the correct remedy.”
(Stock image)
Homosexuality is not curable.
Experts overwhelmingly agree that attempts to cure sexuality or gender identity are futile, misguided, and often extremely harmful, and governments across the world are coming under increasing pressure to crack down.
Attempts to force teens to repress their true selves have been linked to depression, self-harm and even suicide.
In March the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted to condemn gay ‘cure’ therapy and urged member countries to ban the harmful practice.
It says: “[Parliament] welcomes initiatives prohibiting LGBTI conversion therapies and banning the pathologisation of trans identities and urges all Member States to adopt similar measures that respect and uphold the right to gender identity and gender expression”.
The same report also included calls for the European Commission and Member States to guarantee freedom of movement for same-sex couples and their families, while a section on trans rights “calls on Member States to recognise change of gender and to provide access to quick, accessible and transparent legal gender recognition procedures without medical requirements such as surgery or sterilisation”.
