Fighting back: humanist action against ‘conversion therapy’

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

Alan Turing was one of the UK’s most influential mathematicians, and a pioneer of computer science. His wide-ranging interests and formidable intellect drew him to innovation across diverse fields of thought and theory, but his treatment at the hands of the Government he had served, on the grounds of his sexuality, marred his final years and contributed to his early death.

In March 1952, he was arrested and convicted on charges of ‘gross indecency’, for his relationship with another man. Never abashed or secretive about his sexuality, Turing offered little defence or denial, seeing nothing wrong in his actions. At the time, being gay was considered to be a mental illness that could be treated with chemical castration, which Turing accepted in order to avoid a prison sentence.

Turing was not alone in receiving medicalised punishment for ‘gross indecency’ – many others were subjected to the hormone injections he received. Another common ‘treatment’ for LGBT people at the time was so-called ‘aversion therapy’, which often involved the infliction of electric shocks or drug-induced nausea while the victim was shown images of what they were being averted from, such as erotic photographs of same-sex couples.

In 1995, GALHA produced a press release entitled ‘Humanists Protest About Christian ‘Cure’ Ministries’, which responded to a Channel 4 programme in which a father sets up a ministry to ‘cure’ gay men following the suicide of his gay son. GALHA members wrote to the Secretary and Under Secretary of State for Health imploring them to ‘curb the malign activities of these Christian ‘counselling’ organisations’.

In 2012, George Broadhead (GALHA co-founder) responded to a verdict by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) finding a psychotherapist guilty of professional malpractice for using the techniques of conversion therapy. Broadhead commented:

Therapies which claim to be able to ‘cure’ homosexuality are completely discredited. Nevertheless, to their shame, they have been supported by prominent religious figures such as the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

LGBT Humanists Coordinator Nick Baldwin commented:

We are beyond disappointed by the Government’s continued inaction on banning conversion therapy, while LGBT people continue to be subjected to such harmful practices. We will continue to campaign for a conversion therapy ban. And it must be one that is inclusive for the whole LGBT community.

As well as being a campaigner against conversion therapy, Nick Baldwin experienced this abhorrent practice himself:

As a church member I went to my minister in my thirties and said I thought I might be gay and that I didn’t want to be. He then took me through six or so months of ‘prayer counselling’. This means meeting once a week early in the morning in order to ‘eradicate my homosexual tendencies’. I was told I needed to repent both of gay feelings and of any physical sins. I was told homosexuality was an abominable sin and god hated it and by implication me. Of course it didn’t work, but in the short term it increased my sense of shame, self-hatred and deeply ingrained guilt as after a while I realised those gay feelings hadn’t gone away.