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Gay News: A Tory MEP has sparked controversy after tweeting his approval of conversion therapies that try to turn gay people straight
Roger Helmer
Tory MEP says conversion therapy is OK
18 January 2011
Roger Helmer, the Conservative MEP for the East Midlands, made his comments yesterday on social networking site Twitter.
Comparing conversion therapies, which attempt to “cure” people of their sexuality, to gender reassignment surgery, he tweeted:
“Why is it OK for a surgeon to perform a sex-change operation, but not OK for a psychiatrist to try to ‘turn’ a consenting homosexual?”
Michael Cashman, the gay rights activist and Labour MEP for the West Midlands, immediately condemned his fellow MEP’s comments.
“[Helmer] fails to understand the distinct issues of gender identity and sexual preference,” he said.
“Homosexuality is not something that needs ‘curing’ unless you want to escape the awful persecuting environment which is created by statements like Helmer’s.”
He went on to say that Prime Minister David Cameron should take action against Helmer, otherwise the Conservative Party would be seen to be condoning Helmer’s remarks and that they would once again be viewed as the “nasty party without the guts to stand up for minorities”.
Mr Helmer has since insisted that he is not homophobic. He has also admitted that he does not know whether so-called conversion therapies work or not.
“If you have a man who is homosexual and uncomfortable with that, he should be allowed treatment,” he told his local newspaper the Lincolnshire Echo.
“If, for whatever reasons – moral, religious, personal – a homosexual man wants to have help to cure this, he should be allowed to seek treatment.
“I’m not being critical about homosexuality at all, but if we have people who want to change why should they be prevented from that happening?”
