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Some buses are gay...The controversial Stonewall campaign -Some people are gay. Get over it! - firstseen nationally on billboards in 2008, cannow be seen on buses in Yorkshire.And - coincidentally - the largest associationof psychotherapists in the UK - the BritishAssociation for Counselling and Psychotherapy(BACP) - has sent a letter to its30,000 members telling them that beinggay is not a mental disorder and cannot be‘cured.’Pointing to a report by the World HealthOrganisation - ‘Cures For An Illness WhichDoes Not Exist’ - the BACP issued a formalchange of policy, stating that practices suchas ‘conversion or reparative therapies’ have‘no medical indication and represent a severethreat to the health and human rightsof the affected persons' and that ‘There isno scientific, rational or ethical reason totreat people who identify within a range ofhuman sexualities any differently fromthose who identify solely as heterosexual.’Campaigners say that 'gay cure therapies'are hugely damaging to vulnerable people,and the change in the BACP’s guidancesupports that.The letter comes after Christian psychotherapistLeslie Pilkington was struck off for tryingto ‘convert’ an undercover journalist.Pilkington lost her appeal against the decisionin May, and while the British MedicalAssociation passed a motion condemningconversion therapy after journalist PatrickStrudwick's piece, the BACP was still involvedwith the case.Ruth Hunt, director of public policy atStonewall said: ‘We're delighted thatvoodoo “gay cure therapy” can now betreated with precisely the same seriousnessas bloodletting and trepanning.’In May, an advert due to run on Londonbuses that promoted gay conversion therapywas banned following a public outcry.It featured the slogan ‘Not gay! Ex-gay, postgayand proud. Get over it!’(pictured, inset)in a mirror image of the Stonewall campaign.The groups behind the adverts claimed that‘...the Stonewall campaign implies the falseidea that there is indisputable scientific evidencethat people are “born gay” and thatthey have no choice but to affirm their homosexualfeelings’, warned against the ‘misleadingand dangerous’ effects of thePic: Jake Keeble‘promotion of homosexual practices to childrenand young people’ and said that peopleshould be ‘supported in developingtheir heterosexual potential’. The advert,however, was withdrawn from the buses byTransport for London (TfL) after a publicoutcry.‘We do not believe that these specific adsare consistent with TfL’s commitment to atolerant and inclusive London,’ said TfL.

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