Being LGBT is not a disease!

A Recent Press release put out by me !!!

NEWS FROM THE SOUTH-WEST GREEN'S LGBT GROUP

http://www.lgbtgreens.org.uk/

LGBT Greens: Being LGBT is not a disease!

Anglican Mainstream Organisation should be stopped from preaching their so-called ‘treatment’

For Immediate Release

24.4.9

Green Party activists today expressed their horror at the news that there is a conference in London organised by the Anglican Mainstream Organisation this weekend, aimed at informing delegates about ‘curing’ gay men and lesbians.

"Being lesbian or gay is not a disease!" said Ryan Cleminson, spokesperson for the South West Green Party’s LGBT group, Ryan continued "This kind of mistaken 'treatment' is not just a waste of time and resources, it can be extremely harmful. It is based on the fundamentally unsound idea that there is something wrong with variant sexualities.

"The World Health Organisation removed Homosexuality from the classification of diseases in the Statistical and Diagnostic Manual in 1990. Significantly, this is used by clinicians to identify mental health problems.[1] The fact that no reputable and ethical therapist would try to change someone’s sexuality speaks volumes about what sort of ‘treatment’ is being advocated by the Anglican Mainstream Organisation. There is a real danger that people referred for such treatment will have an increase in the self-hatred they feel."

Councillor Ricky Knight the South West Green Party lead European Candidate a former teacher of thirty years in secondary education said : "Young people are especially at risk, especially those whose family and friends do not understand and support them when they begin to understand their sexual identity. That identity is an important part of anyone’s psychological makeup and as stats assert: LGBT youth are at greater risk of self-harm and suicide, which develops from their experience of negative attitudes.

"This kind of so-called treatment," concluded Ryan Cleminson "should not be available as it can harm people who are in an already vulnerable state. Claims that being gay or lesbian is a disease not only hark back to a by-gone era but are also about actively blocking the advances that LGBT people have won.

"Anglican Mainstream Organisation: we will not go back into the closet! We are now more able to live openly and comfortably in our neighbourhoods and feel accepted where we work, study and relax. You will not drive us back into the closet through your so-called treatment."

ENDS

Notes for Editors: Please contact Ryan Cleminson on 07922 818437 who is the LGBT spokesman for the South West LGBT Group,

[1] Most reputable organisations of therapists and psychiatrists have denied the usefulness of the proposed treatment. The American Psychiatric Association stated in 1998 that it "opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as "reparative" or "conversion" therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder, or based upon a prior assumption that the patient should change his/ her homosexual orientation".