Christian group reports psychiatrists to GMC for saying homosexuality isn’t a choice

A Christian group has reported the Royal College of Psychiatrists to the General Medical Council – for saying homosexuality isn’t an illness.

The Core Issues Trust (CIT) argues that saying homosexuality is fixed at birth, is “discrimination” against people who want to undergo gay conversion therapy.

The group also named three psychiatrists in its complaint: Professor Sue Bailey, former college president, college registrar Dr Laurence Mynors-Wallis and Professor Michael King, who previously chaired the college’s LGBT special interest group.

Speaking to i100.co.uk Prof King said he had been consistently targeted by Christian groups for his research into LGBT issues including gay conversion therapy. “It’s definitely getting worse, because they haven’t gone to the GMC before,” he said.

There are websites excoriating my scientific ability, pretty much over this issue but over other religious research issues too.

It’s all a smokescreen for a damaging therapy that they are trying to push because they have a theological fundamentalism.

• Professor Michael King

King also pointed out that the CIT complaint singled out advice criticising gay conversion therapy that 14 organisations had released at the request of the Department of Health.

“Their treatments are not theory based because there is no evidence for those theories and secondly there’s no empirical evidence of effectiveness. Thirdly it increases stigma and prejudice in society to call homosexuals broken heterosexuals,” King said.

“I feel very sympathetic for these gay Christians who are trying to resolve their religious beliefs with their sexuality but it doesn’t help to offer them some kind of cure and to view them as ill. They would never say that, they deny that they are ill. But when you use the word ‘repair’ ‘conversion’ and ‘brokenness’ that sounds like 'ill' to me… It’s tragic.”

King said he had not yet heard from the GMC so was unsure what the next stage of the complaint would be.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said in a statement: "The Royal College of Psychiatrists notes that homosexuality is not a psychiatric disorder. We consider that the provision of any intervention to 'treat' normal sexuality is unethical."

More: The ex-gay files: The bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion