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Catholic doctors offer homeopathic 'treatment' for homosexuality
Published: 2 Jun 11 11:28 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110602-35417.html
German gay and lesbian groups are outraged at an item posted on the website of an association of Catholic doctors that offers psychotherapy and homeopathic treatment for homosexuality.
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Following the heading "Homosexuality is not an illness!", the BKÄ goes on to offer "therapy opportunities against homosexual tendencies."
The therapy includes psychotherapy and homeopathic treatment, controversial in itself, that consisted of using high concentrations of substances like platinum.
The BKÄ insisted that it was only providing help for people who asked for it. "We know of many people with homosexual tendencies in spiritual and psychological distress," BKÄ boss Gero Winkelmann told news magazine Der Spiegel. "If someone is unhappy, sick, or in distress then he or she should be able to find opportunities to find help on our website."
Winkelmann runs a private homeopathic practice in Unterhaching, Bavaria, and was previously active in a small political party called the Christian League.
The LSVD has branded the "therapy" as unacceptable. "The offers are dangerous," spokeswoman Renate Rampf told the magazine. "They exploit the insecurities of homo- and bisexual young people and their parents."
Rampf also said the treatments would be especially destabilizing because they couldn't work. "All serious specialists in the area agree that sexual orientation is shaped in earliest childhood," she said.
Winkelmann insisted that his organization was not trying to hurt or "impose" an illness on anyone. He also clarified that his website did not present the official Catholic church view of homosexuality, but was a private opinion.
"This is not about outing or intolerance," a statement on the website reads. "It's a Christian and medical contribution to an age-old issue."
The website also includes the apparent statement of a "homosexual from southern Germany," who found to his "joy," that the association "does believe it's possible to change homosexual tendencies."
The Local/bk
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Your comments about this article:
Who listens to the catholic church anymore?
Have a nice day everyone
Religion on a whole has a lot to answer for, but this takes the biscuit
V
The only reason these people might be experiencing unhappiness or distress is because the church and other homophobes are continually telling them they're "abnormal" or "degenerate" or "sick." Of course, the church also told Galileo he was nuts, and spent a lot of time and effort trying to convert the Jews too. It's not necessarily a track record I'd chose to follow.
@LarsBar
Like far too many others, you see something you don't understand and immediately brand it as a disease that must be cured. Sadly, you're wrong. Homosexuality exists in almost every animal species, but only humans seek to ostracize those who have gender or orientation issues. It may be a minority of the population, but that doesn't make it an "abnormality."
wa
I am very curious on what is based your conviction that homosexuality is a disease. For more than a century, scientists say that it is not. It is also what organisations like American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association say. Do you have any contrary objective information? Or is your opinion based only on personal (spiritual) beliefs?
If Pedophilia is a sickness, so as homosexuality and the cause is a different brain architecture than normal people (check pubmed for more information)
Next they will drag out their old EXciisim rites - basically witchcraft.
And that actually defines the church anyway. The church of the enless and hidden for centuries molestation of children.
the church which gave an unknown number of nazis passports at the end of WWII so they could escape to Argentina, which has a large Jewish population,and then there were temple bombings etc.
The church which lives in the dark ages . Go to www.catholicarrogance.org
and www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm
Wonder whats next for the church - a new inquisition and burning at the stake of gays?
"If Pedophilia is a sickness, so as homosexuality and the cause is a different brain architecture than normal people (check pubmed for more information)"
Really? I checked www.pubmed.com, but I could find only articles saying that homosexuality is not a disease. Can you please point out one which supports your opinion? Or you did not actually read any articles from there?
So it means that you have no objective information to support your point of view (even your new statements), do you? Otherwise you would have produced it. So I guess LecteurX is right.
Let's see. Whom to believe? Catholic Church....Lady Gaga. Catholic Church....Lady Gaga.
I'm goin' with Lady Gaga. Much better record on human rights.
By the way, when does Coprophilia Pride Day become a national holiday? That's 'natural' behavior as well.
So I ask you, MarshaLynn: can you please point to the article/study in question? If not, it is easy to give in to the temptation of believing that what was written in your post is nothing more than hot air.
What about behavior that so often results in disease and death is normal exactly?
With all due respect, the book you mention is not a study and definitely not a scientific work. It just documents how vulnerable against AIDS were the gays in the US in the period 1976-1987 (the book was published 24 years ago). Otherwise, the main focus is AIDS and this affects all people, not only gays.
So, can you point out a scientific study?
At the age of 18 I came admitted to myself that I was gay. Due to my very conservative Christian upbringing, this was unacceptable to me, so I attempted suicide. Obviously, I survived. I spent the next 40 years in counseling, aversion therapy, Christian "get straight" counseling, sex with females, getting engaged and living with a woman and her children. I finally realized that I was gay and that there was nothing I could do to change that. At the age of 58 I am now at peace with myself , my sexuality and my God. I do not consider myself perverted, "an abomination" sick, or abnormal however strong your cruel statements are. God will be my judge when I meet that being just as that being will be your judge. Before you make more accusations and judgements and quote more studies, walk a mile in my shoes.
While AIDS affects all people, in the United Stares it overwhelmingly effects male homosexuals and intravenous drug users. I know dozens of them who have died of AIDS among my circle of acquaintances including one relative and in the same circle of acquaintances and relatives there is not one case of AIDS among heterosexuals.
Comforting mythology about AIDS affecting everyone have little meaning against the overwhelming reality-- AIDS is predominantly a disease of male homosexuals and intravenous drug users.
Expat -- If you find reality and hard figures cruel, I would say that it is reality that is oppressing you, not I. My 'judgment', such as it is, is that homosexual behavior leads to a high death rate, which is clear from all information we have. Once you have that information, it is up to you to determine what you make of it and what decisions you make. Good luck.