Psychotherapist Faces Being Fired for Gay Conversion Therapy

A psychotherapist in the UK has been caught in a gay-cure sting and now faces being “struck off”—to us Yanks on this side of the pond, apparently that means being fired from her job.

Lesley Pilkington, 60, is being reviewed by a conduct panel of the British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy, and could very well be stripped of her accreditation for trying to cure a gay man of his homosexuality. The patient in question is Patrick Strudwick, and undercover journalist and head of the Stop Conversion Therapy Taskforce, who went through sessions with Pilkington with a tape recorder strapped to his stomach.

In his investigation, he discovered that Pilkington was more than happy to help him and other gays get through their rough emotional times by understanding their “homosexual problem.” As Pilkington told the UK’s Sunday Telegraph, “We say everybody is heterosexual, but some people have a homosexual problem. Nobody is born gay. It is in the upbringing.” Yes, some people still think this.

But Strudwick says that this defense is bollocks, as the Brits say. “Every major mental health organization in Britain and America is opposed to attempts to change someone’s sexuality…” he said, “Because there is good evidence not only that it doesn’t work but that it is harmful.” In other words—Therapist, heal thyself.