KENILWORTH, 17 NOVEMBER 2003 — In a new development in the Vatican’s anti-gay drive, parents who suspect their child might be gay are being advised to seek “therapy” for themselves and their offspring.
An interview with John Harvey, founder of Courage, a Catholic organisation aimed at getting gay people to give up sex, appears on an official Vatican news site (Zenit News Agency – “The World Seen From Rome”). In it, Father Harvey says that parents should look out for “specific signs” that their child might be gay and then seek “effective psychological and spiritual treatment” for their kids.
Harvey indicates the signs to look out for are in boys: “a little boy who likes to dress up in girls’ clothes – sometimes this began with the mother dressing him like a little girl”. Other signs are: “if one son in a family is different from his brothers; if a boy is not involved in sports; if he is a loner who spends endless hours on the Internet; if, as an adolescent, he spends much time with one or two other boys who are also loners; if most of his close friends are girls; if he has feminine mannerisms; if he has a distant relationship with his father; and if he tends to prefer his sisters to his brothers”.
Harvey says that if parents believe they have a gay child “it is prudent to bring the child to a reliable clinical psychologist”.
Terry Sanderson, a spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA), said: “The Vatican’s determination to force gay people to live by its own interpretation of ‘biblical values’ is inflicting untold misery on those gay people who heed it. Any gay person who gets drawn into this dysfunctional way of viewing their sexuality will inevitably be pushed into misery and isolation.”
Mr Sanderson said this was the second interview on the site focusing on either “changing” sexual orientation or encouraging gays not to express themselves sexually. “It is indicative of the Vatican’s increasing – almost hysterical – hostility to homosexuality. It is encouraging the creation of deep unhappiness and confusion in the minds of vulnerable people.”
Mr Sanderson said that the Vatican’s latest campaign targeting children who are perceived as gay was irresponsible and risked creating lifelong psychological damage. “Such is the Vatican’s desperation to eradicate homosexuality that it seems quite prepared to torment children by pushing them into a sick system of so-called therapy. These obsessive clerics should not be permitted to inflict their sexual maladjustment on vulnerable children. Hasn’t the Catholic Church done enough damage to children over the years?”