Translated material
Treatment for gays - conversion therapy
The wretched history of the pathologization of homosexuality has many dark chapters. For decades, men, women and children have been sent to the electric chair, poisoned, drugged, castrated and even lobotomized by Frankenstein-like Freudians and self-serving charlatans.
Reparative therapy (English reparative therapy, from Latin reparo - “to correct”), also known as “conversion”, “reorientation” or “differentiation”, is a set of techniques aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. Similar techniques have also been and are sometimes used to change the gender identity of transgender people to match their assigned sex at birth.
All these tortures, as well as the nonsense called conversion therapy, were attempts to “cure” the “disease” of homosexuality. People's motivations for seeking such remedies varied. Children may have been coerced by their parents or church leaders. Adults died from social pressure, avoiding prison or from a real fear of being killed. This is the current situation in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Russia is experiencing an alarming boom in those seeking or calling for conversion therapy. This "magic cure" is basically hypnosis or a strange form of religious "purification" similar to Catholic exorcism. This is where charlatans and swindlers make money. A few expensive appointments and a little more than a little blackmail are enough to keep the patient list secret. To clarify, homosexuality in Russia is not officially classified as a mental disorder. “Being gay” was removed from the list of conditions recognized as mental disorders in 1999. However, hostility towards gays in society is growing. LGBT people are subjected to brutal sessions of conditioning therapy or the misunderstood cognitive therapy that associates arousal with pain and nausea. Imagine a cross between A Clockwork Orange and some of Orwell's nightmares.
BBC investigation
A recent BBC investigation into the rise of conversion therapy included an interview with psychotherapist Ian Goland. He claimed to have "cured" 78 gay men and 8 trans people using a combination of psychoanalysis, hypnotherapy and pressure on the patient/victim to engage in heterosexual intercourse.
But there are still hundreds of charlatans, extortionists and well-meaning homophobic professionals. There are men in white coats, and there are men in funny hats and dresses. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoys power in Russia unseen since the times of the Tsars.
Homosexuality is what these highly respected priests view as a cancer of God's creation. Protestant pastors run the organization "Restoration", which offers Russians "rehabilitation / resurrection" using medieval mumbo-jumbo methods. Gays are beaten with rods soaked in cold water and forced to swallow holy water. They are locked in solitary cells, Bible verses are shouted into their ears, and they are deprived of sleep. All the classic examples of brainwashing and psychological torture are used to extract false information. Those who were subjected to these medieval rituals were inevitably left in a state of mental disorder, self-hatred, and suicidal thoughts.
In other countries
Russia, of course, is not the only place where these destructive mental and physical tricks take place. However, the law allegedly promoting homosexuality has created a storm of crime and fear that could force LGBT people to undergo this painful suffering.
Other countries have taken different approaches to invalidating queer identification. Several decades ago in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa allowing gender reassignment surgery. This may seem like an act of tolerance. However, this was a fact of the elimination of homosexual men. Gay men in Iran are forced to choose between death and gender reassignment surgery, which will make them trans women, regardless of their self-identification.
There is a disturbing gay industry in the US that includes summer camps for children that "pray that there are no gays." One of the biggest inspirers of the American gay “cure” movement is Alan Chambers, whose religious quasi-cult Exodus International has more than 260 ministries that promise to rid you of these “pesky demons of fag” for a hefty fee. Ironically, Chambers admitted that “in 99% of reported cases this treatment does not work.”
Amnesty International and the UN have called the culture of "corrective rape" by which lesbians are "treated" in Africa and parts of Asia abhorrent.I think the term abhorrent is self-explanatory as to the method used.
This sounds nasty, but is there any actual evidence that sexual orientation can be changed by these therapies? The answer is a resounding no. Decades of empirical research have shown that homosexuality is not a disorder and cannot be cured. Therapies are almost universally perceived as unethical, unscientific and ineffective, not to mention a serious violation of the Hippocratic Oath.
What the professional community says
Earlier this year, the Irish Council for Psychotherapy stated that "Attempts to change, manipulate or reverse sexual orientation and/or gender identity through psychotherapy within different theoretical approaches are unethical... it is usually done through scientifically unproven and potentially dangerous methods."
This same sentiment was echoed by a 2007 report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK, which stated: “Evidence shows that LGB people are open to seeking help for mental health problems. However, they may be misunderstood by therapists who see their homosexuality as the root cause of whatever problem they are being told about, such as depression or anxiety. Unfortunately, therapists who behave in this way can cause significant distress to the person who sees them. Some therapists will even go so far as to try to change their client's sexual orientation... There is no evidence that such a change is possible ."
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization has called LGBT conversion therapy “a serious threat to the health and well-being – and even the lives of those affected.”
The only scientific paper that seemed to buck this trend was published by Dr. Robert Spitzer in 2003. However, Dr. Spitzer later admitted that his evidence was "fatally flawed" and his conclusions were completely incorrect.
He went so far as to ask LGBT people for forgiveness, saying: " I owe it to the gay community to apologize ." Other LGBT “cure” studies have discredited Freudian theories, falsified pseudoscientific results, and religious dogma.
The overwhelming body of scientific evidence indicates that homosexuality is a natural and permanent phenomenon not only of the human species, but of the entire animal kingdom. Advances in neuroscience and genetics are moving ever closer to identifying innate differences in the gay brain and developing genetic models that show why LGBT people are adaptive and may be a necessary part of overall DNA transmission in the population.
LGBT people who want to be “cured”
One inconvenient fact cannot be ignored. There are LGBT people who sincerely want to be heterosexual. Should we interfere with their free choice to seek help?
After all, we would consider it immoral to prevent a trans person from, for example, meditating to become who they want to be, even though we know it won't help. I would like to ask LGBT people who want to “cure” to ask themselves the following questions. Do you feel that your own individual homosexuality is alien to your personality? Or maybe you think that all homosexuals are sick? Do you want this because your family, friends, government or religion make you feel this way? Do you want to avoid being beaten, or do you want to fit in better with society, get married and have children? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” I would suggest that this “medicine” is not actually your choice. This is coercion. You are not sick, it is society that puts pressure on you.
Unscientific and unnecessary, gay conversion therapy attempts to manipulate society by maintaining a specific hierarchy in which male heterosexuality is placed at the top. Anything that challenges heteronormative meanings is subversive and should be destroyed or discredited.
For a gay person, thinking that you are weird or sick is the same as a representative of a colonized people thinking that their culture is worse than the culture of the colonialists. This effect still resonates today. When magical spells, whether psychiatric or religious, do not change sexual orientation, this is seen as the “fault” of the child or the adults. Guilt about disappointing parents, fear of angering God, confusion and self-hatred in young people often lead to alcohol and drug abuse, and in many cases, suicide. There are also serious consequences for the broader culture that endures this carnage. If you can deceive heterosexual society into believing that homosexuality is a disease or a choice, then you are on a slippery slope that leads to unconscionable coercion, criminalization and persecution of LGBT people.
Posted by Rob Loose Cannon Buchanan
Source: http://theloosecannonbuchanan.tumblr.com/post/161236499081/the-evil-of-gay-cures-in-russia
Translation: Gulnara Kurmanova