The UK government is claiming it’s ‘not aware’ of gay cure therapy in the UK, just a week after a practitioner was interviewed on Good Morning Britain reports Pink News.
It is currently legal for unregulated doctors to attempt gay ‘cure’ therapy in the UK, though the practise is banned on the NHS.
LGBT activists have called for a new law to directly outlaw it, but the government rejected a petition on the issue earlier this year.
In a fresh response to calls for a country-wide ban this week, Conservative Health minister and Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price claimed there is no evidence of “widespread” gay cure therapy in the UK.
She claimed: “We are not aware of widespread instances of gay conversion therapy happening in the United Kingdom.”
Ms Doyle-Price’s claim that the government is “not aware” of widespread instances of gay conversion therapy is pretty surprising, just one week after a gay cure therapist was interviewed on Good Morning Britain.
The popular ITV show invited Dr Michael Davidson, who claims he could stop people being gay, on air to discuss his practises.
Dr Davidson explained that he has a thriving business, explaining: “in the last year I’m seeing up to 14 a week, many of them are in therapy for up to two years.”.
Mr Doyle-Price’s reply said: “This Government does not recognise so-called ‘gay conversion therapy’ as a legitimate treatment. A person’s sexual orientation is not an illness to be cured.
“We have already worked with the main registration and accreditation bodies for psychotherapy and counselling practitioners, including the UK Council for Psychotherapy, to develop a Memorandum of Understanding to put a stop to this practice.
“We are not aware of widespread instances of gay conversion therapy happening in the United Kingdom, but we want to get a better idea of the extent to which it is being practised.
“That is why we included questions on this topic in our national LGBT survey, which was launched this summer. We will publish the survey results and our response in the new year.”
