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UK therapists are still offering treatments to ‘cure’ homosexuality, according to research published today by the journal BMC Psychiatry.

One in six of the 1,400 mental health professionals surveyed have offered to help patients ‘curb homosexual feelings’, and 4% say they would attempt to completely change a patient’s sexual orientation.

There is no evidence that it is possible to change a person’s sexual orientation, and in 1973 the American Psychiatric Association recognised that homosexuality was not a mental illness.

“We know now that efforts to change people’s sexual orientation result in very little change and can cause immense harm,” says author of the report, Professor Michael King of University College London.

“We found it very worrying that there was a significant minority who appeared to ignore this - even if they had all the right intentions.”

Derek Munn, of Stonewall, commented: “The conclusions of this research are a welcome reminder that what lesbian and gay people need is equal treatment by society, not misguided treatment by a minority of health professionals.”

The Royal College of Psychiatrists states that all homosexual people have “a right to protection from therapies that are potentially damaging, particularly those that purport to change sexual orientation”.

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