'Get well' therapy for gays

2008-06-06 13:19

Lublin, Poland - Often considered sick, deviant or sinners, gays and lesbians in deeply Catholic Poland are being nudged towards church-steered programmes designed to help them fight their homosexuality.

In the southeastern city of Lublin, a hub of Roman Catholic teaching, a building houses Odwaga, or Courage, an organisation which offers "therapy" for homosexuals - to the consternation of gay rights groups who find it an aberration.

Behind its walls, men are taught to kick a football around, women take cookery lessons and, above all, participants spend time praying with priests.

"The goal isn't to change the patient, to shift their orientations, but rather to prepare them to accept their leanings," said Lena Wojdan, a Warsaw-based psychologist involved in Odwaga programmes.

Life can be hard for homosexuals in Poland - where more than 90% of the 38.2-million-strong population is Catholic and where the gay and lesbian community has complained of living in a "climate of fear".

Even high-ranking Polish politicians make openly homophobic statements.

"God created them as they are"

A survey published last year found that 53% of Poles considered homosexuality a sin, while 45% felt homosexuals should try to change their preference.

Odwaga's take is more nuanced, Wojdan told AFP in an interview away from the centre's premises. Journalists are not welcome at Odwaga, which was founded in 2007 by the church-linked Light-Life Foundation.

"They need to accept that God created them as they are. This is something that they have been given to bear as a burden," said Wojdan, sporting a large crucifix around her neck.

The aim is to convince participants they should try to choose between a "sinful" sex-life and a chaste, Christian existence.

"This is a kind of suffering which has meaning for Christians, a suffering that they have to face each day," Wojdan added.

"A human being is capable of knowing what's really important to him or her and thus of overcoming his or her feelings. When you want a sweet, for example, you are completely able to resist the urge," she said.

Threaten mental health

Its methods have been adopted by psychologists and other Odwaga-type support groups across Poland.

"Today I feel free because I no longer need to live out my homosexuality actively," a woman who took an individual programme five years ago told AFP.

"I no longer feel I'm a lesbian and I have even started to discover men," she said in a telephone interview, speaking on condition of anonymity.

For gay rights campaigners, the programmes of Odwaga and its ilk are an aberration and can even threaten participants' mental health.

"When a homosexual goes to see these psychologists, he or she is told: 'You'll get over it.' But you don't 'get over it'," said Marta Abramowicz, a psychologist who works for the Campaign Against Homophobia, a Polish-based gay rights group.

- AFP