Shrink has gays up in arms
2005-06-21 21:29
Madrid - A row was brewing in Spain on Tuesday after a psychiatric expert dubbed homosexuality a "pathological" state before the country's senate, prompting outrage among gay rights groups while the ruling Socialists slammed his "palaeolithic" views.
"Homosexuality is a pathology," said Aquilino Polaino, professor of psychiatry at Madrid's Catholic university.
He had been called in by opposition rightwing legislators to speak on the issue before the upper house of parliament, which in the coming weeks is to vote on a bill legalising gay marriages.
"A violent, hostile, distant or alcoholic father" or "a cold, over-protective mother" are what "causes" homosexuality which can lead those so afflicted to depression and to seek solace in drugs, Polaino argued.
The ruling Socialist government promoted the gay marriage legislation, which includes the adoption of children by homosexual couples, and parliament passed it in April, with the senate set to seal its passage by the summer.
The Socialists slammed Polaino on Tuesday for his "grotesque and palaeolithic" views.
The pro-gay Triangle Foundation slammed the professor as an "intolerant man who wants to give us electric shocks", while Spain's federation of lesbians and gays wrote to the official college of Madrid doctors to call for his expulsion from their panel of experts.
Paranoia
Felipe del Bano, a conservative opposition legislator who recently acknowledged he was gay, accused Polaino of "creating and inciting eruptions of aggressive and radical homophobia with his paranoia".
His party's senate and parliamentary spokespersons also said they "totally rejected" Polaino's views.
Amnesty International weighed in by demanding "an end to the escalation of discriminatory comments regarding homosexuals in Spain", which the organisation said was "closely linked with homophobic violence".
The row brewed on the heels of a demonstration by several hundred thousand people on Saturday against the gay marriage legislation which was backed by the main opposition Popular Party and the Roman Catholic Church.
A rival march drew nearly as many people who used a concert by Brazilian singer Carlinhos Brown to show their support for same-sex unions.
- AFP