bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Peter Price was 18 when he underwent conversion therapy, which was intended to “cure” his homosexuality but instead left him deeply damaged.
“I thought I was going mental. I wasn’t worried about getting cured, I was worried about getting out alive,” he said.
The British government last week announced its intention to ban the practice, as part of a new action plan to tackle discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.
But Price, now 72 and a radio presenter in Liverpool, northwest England, was astonished it had taken so long.
For many years he refused to talk about his experience, but broke his silence in the hope that no one else need endure what he called “torture”.
Price agreed to treatment at the Diva Hospital, a psychiatric institution in the state-run National Health Service (NHS), under pressure from his mother.
She had been “distraught” when he told her he was gay – it was 1964 and homosexuality was illegal in England.
“We went to the doctor and the doctor told me there was a cure, aversion therapy,” he recalled.
This consisted of five days of treatment, intended to create a negative response to sexual stimulation by men.

Hour after hour in a windowless room, Price listened to a tape recording of someone describing sexual acts in explicit detail.
At the same time he was shown photos of men in swimming trunks and regularly injected by a substance that made him vomit and gave him diarrhoea.
“I was puking, I was lying in s***, I was in a terrible state,” he recalled.
After three days, he could not handle it any more.
“I was a basket case. I then said to them, I want to get out. I volunteered, and I want to get out,” he said.
Against the wishes of the psychiatrist supervising the treatment, he avoided the final stage, which would have seen him receive electric shocks when he became aroused.
“I decided after that I was going to change my life, and be who I was,” he said.
Price was never able to tell his mother what happened, and only began speaking out when conversion therapy entered the national debate in the late 1990s.
Several soldiers launched a high-profile court case against their expulsion from the army for being gay, one of whom had undergone the treatment.
Hearing for the first time that someone else had suffered in a similar way gave Price the courage to tell his own story.
“It has done something to my mind which I can’t explain,” Price said.
“I had a great life, a very successful career, I had wonderful time, but I had some very very dark thoughts, and some terrible depression because of it.”
Prime Minister Theresa May has called conversion therapies an “abhorrent practice” and in an announcement timed with this weekend’s Pride events, vowed to ban it.
Her government released the results of an online survey that found two per cent of LGBT people in Britain had received some kind of conversion therapy, while another five per cent had it offered but refused.
Just over half of those who received it said it was conducted by a faith group, 19 per cent by a health care professional and 16 per cent by a family member.
Price said of the proposed ban: “It’s 50 years too late.
“I am a strong person, so I survived, but I don’t know how many people have not survived.”


Sexual fantasy, fan fiction, fairy tales: Hong Kong queer artists challenge norms

Malaysia’s LGBTQ crackdowns aren’t hypocrisy, they’re politics

Want to be a DJ? Hong Kong’s Moth Foundation is music school and LGBTQ safe space in one

Meet Rafael Olarra, Pedro Pascal’s rumoured boyfriend – and Luke Evans’ ex

LGBTQ

UK doctor’s ‘cure’ for Peter’s homosexuality involved a windowless room, explicit recordings and vomiting

Comedian Peter Price, who underwent conversion therapy at the age of 18 intended to “cure” his homosexuality. Photo: AFP

A participant takes part in the annual Pride in London parade, in London, Britain July 7, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Britain to ban gay ‘conversion therapy’ as part of sweeping plan to stamp out discrimination

Members of Britain’s LGBT community take part in the annual Pride Parade in London. The government is moving to ban gay conversion therapy amid a wider action plan on discrimination. Photo: AFP

News

World

Europe

‘I was puking, I was lying in s***, I was in a terrible state’


Peter Price was 18 when he underwent conversion therapy, which was intended to “cure” his homosexuality but instead left him deeply damaged.


Britain

UK doctor’s ‘cure’ for Peter’s homosexuality involved a windowless room, explicit recordings and vomiting

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘I was puking, I was lying in s***, I was in a terrible state’

‘I was puking, I was lying in s***, I was in a terrible state’