Outgoing Health Minister Edith Schippers has decided that health insurers no longer have to pay for a controversial therapy intended to ‘cure’ gay people as provided by the Christian organisation ‘Different’.
In her letter to parliament, Minister Schippers argues that when Christians suffer psychologically because of homosexual feelings, this does not mean they have a psychiatric disorder. In the absence of a disorder, there is no justification for psychiatric treatment.
The minister writes that Different is entitled to provide pastoral counselling to patients who experience their homosexual feelings as a burden, but such counselling should not be covered by any health insurance.
Early this year, parliament was up in arms when it learned that Different was trying to ‘cure’ homosexuals and that health insurers were obligated to pay for the treatment.
Related articles
- Psychiatrist’s Gay ‘Cure’ Apology – and the Vatican (queeringthechurch.com)
- “Intrinsically disordered”, the Vatican preserves pathologising of LGBT sexuality (queeringthechurch.com)
