Norman Lamb: “As a Lib Dem, I want to eradicate gay conversion therapy”

By The Voice | Sun 6th April 2014 - 6:41 pm

Norman Lamb has told the Guardian that he will do all he can to eradicate referral to gay conversion therapy in NHS England:

Gay conversion therapy is abhorrent and has no place in a modern society, according to the health minister Norman Lamb, who has asked for assurances from NHS England that GPs do not make any referrals for such treatment.

“It is based on the completely false premise that there is something wrong with you if you happen to be gay,” said Lamb, the minister for care and support. “I certainly want to do what I can, as a Liberal Democrat, to eradicate this.”

However, his comments that he does not intend to ban the practice will cause some consternation amongst Liberal Democrat members. Last weekend, the Scottish conference passed a motion which called for a ban within the NHS and on anyone offering such therapy on a commercial basis, calling the practice “barbaric” and “harmful.”

Norman is perfectly clear that he is totally opposed to such therapy, and he explained why he was not in favour of a ban:

Lamb said: “I don’t think there should be referrals to professionals in the NHS. I haven’t seen evidence of referrals, but in a vast system [like the NHS] one imagines that could happen. So we have to be clear about the inappropriateness of that.”

He has written to NHS England to stress that NHS money should not be spent in this way. “There are steps we can take to make sure it has no place in the NHS,” he said. “We can also send a clear signal that health professionals within the NHS should not be referring people – it would be entirely wrong to make referrals.”

Lamb did not consider a ban to be an option. “There will be people who want help with coming to terms with their sexualityand need to be able to seek support from a professional,” he said. It was important to avoid a situation where a doctor or therapist felt they could not counsel someone in that situation. “We must not end up with a situation where we end up with people fearing they will be prosecuted.”

It seems that what Norman is offering is a ban in all but name. Perhaps the best thing to do is to wait and see if this approach works.

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5 Comments

Chris 7th Apr '14 - 1:31pm

That’s as clear as mud. What does it mean? That a GP can refer someone to a therapist, and that the therapist can carry out “gay conversion therapy”, provided it wasn’t mentioned explicitly in the referral?
peter tyzack 8th Apr '14 - 8:04am

it seems to me almost as abhorrent as FGM. There must surely be a way of writing a rule that says that personal therapy services are right and should be supported, but any ‘therapy’ that pursues a demonstrably quack theory is outlawed.
Matt Peck 10th Apr '14 - 4:17pm

Er, banning it isn’t very , Liberal.
Chris 10th Apr '14 - 7:46pm

Matt

Not really, if we’re talking about the NHS.

And if we’re talking about private practitioners, then it rather depends on how harmful the “therapy” can be, doesn’t it?
Paul in Twickenham 10th Apr '14 - 9:03pm

I am not sure how I feel about – for example – homeopathy on the NHS since while I have no doubt that it is pure hokum, the placebo effect is a powerful thing. But “gay conversion therapy” is not only hokum, it seems to me that it is entirely dangerous hokum that could lead to the unsuccessful recipient being left feeling trapped and hopeless.