LONDON, October 18, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Britain’s largest homosexual pressure group has defied a court order that banned advertisements on London buses promoting the normalization of homosexuality.
The lobby group Stonewall has reissued a series of advertisements that say, “Some people are gay. Get over it!”
The signs have appeared through October on London’s world famous double-decker buses and on public transport in other parts of the country as part of a nationwide campaign.
The Christian therapy group Core Issues Trust, which helps people voluntarily leave the homosexual lifestyle, is seeking an emergency temporary injunction to have the ads removed.
Last April, the Trust had attempted to have similar ads posted to London’s buses, that read, “Not Gay. Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it!”
The ads were ordered removed by Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party mayor of London. The Trust responded with a lawsuit against Johnson and Transport for London, (TfL) the company that manages London’s bus advertising.
TfL has re-run the Stonewall ads this month, despite a judgment by the High Court in March 2012 that said they were in breach of TfL’s own advertising standards.
In her judgment Mrs. Justice Lang said, “The advertisements by…Stonewall did not comply with TfL’s own restrictions which prohibit advertisements ‘likely to cause widespread or serious offense’…The Stonewall advertisement was highly offensive to fundamentalist Christians and other religious groups whose religious belief is that homosexuality is contrary to God’s teachings.”
In the same ruling, Lang also said the Core Issues Trust advertisements could “cause grave offense” to homosexuals and was seen as “homophobic…thus increasing the risk of prejudice and homophobic attacks.”
The Trust, with the help of the legal advocacy group Christian Concern, has filed for an emergency judicial review of TfL’s decision and are seeking an interim injunction pending the hearing in December.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said, “Stonewall’s actions show a blatant disregard for the law,” adding that Stonewall is attempting to “dominate the debate” and accusing TfL of “aiding and abetting” the homosexual group.
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“Stonewall has a track record of using the law and the decisions of the courts to push its own agenda,” Williams said. “But when a court makes a decision which is not to Stonewall’s liking, as in this case, it ploughs on regardless with its agenda, showing contempt for the rule of law in the process.”
Christian Concern has asked for help from concerned citizens in gathering evidence on the bus adverts being displayed in other parts of the country. They have asked for photos together with the time and place and bus numbers where they have been seen.
In related news, a counselor with Core Issues Trust, Dr. Michael Davidson, says he has been “hounded out” of his profession by the British professional associations overseeing psychotherapy and psychological counseling.
Under the direction of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) the British Psychodrama Association (BPA), has issued a ruling removing Dr. Davidson from its register of trainee counselors.
The move came in response to two radio interviews Davidson gave to the BBC in January 2012, in which he described his work helping homosexuals overcome their unwanted desires. Davidson, himself a former homosexual, has said he was not given any opportunity by the BPA to defend or explain his position.
The BPA has said they based their decision against Davidson on professional practice guidelines issued last year by the UKCP, that said requests by clients for help overcoming unwanted feelings of same-sex attraction must not be honored by psychotherapists. Instead, clients who wish to change their “orientation” must be counseled to accept and embrace these unwanted feelings.
“It is not a sufficient defense for a therapist to argue that…they were acting in the client’s best interests, or…autonomy, as offering such therapy would be…reinforcing their externalized and internalized oppression,” the BPA said.
The organization holds that a person who wants to overcome or reduce unwanted same-sex attractions must be told that they are suffering from “oppression” and be counseled to overcome their own desires to escape the lifestyle instead.
UKCP guidelines say, “It is exploitative for a psychotherapist to offer treatment that might ‘cure’ or ‘reduce’ same sex attraction as to do so would be offering a treatment for which there is no illness.
“It is exploitative to offer treatment to reduce same sex attraction when various studies bring into question whether such treatments change a person’s sexuality.”
Citing a single research paper, the guidance says, “Research has shown that offering, or agreeing to the client’s request for, therapy for the reduction of same sex attraction is not in a client’s best interests.”
A spokesman for the UKCP told a BBC radio interviewer that the guidelines apply, even though they do not agree with the scientific studies on the subject of same-sex attraction. Dr. Di Hodgson, Chair of the UKCP’s Diversity, Equalities and Social Responsibility Committee, said the UKCP has “taken a view in a way which is regardless of the scientific findings” and that “whether or not something works doesn’t mean that it is ethical….”
Dermot O’Callaghan, a trustee of Core Issues Trust, a trust established by Dr. Davidson, commented, “Mike’s professional life has been ruined by ideology even though he has done nothing wrong.
“They have ruined the life of a caring and courageous counselor,” O'Callaghan said. “It is not that a bad therapist has been tried against good ethical principles; rather, a good man has been tried against bad principles.”