In the first half of the 20th century, gays feared being stigmatised and even imprisoned if their sexual orientation was revealed.

Now the tables have turned full circle and the Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam, Aryeh Ralbag, fears for his life after signing a declaration urging gays to be "cured" amid the new "fascism" which Orthodox Jews claim inhibits free speech on the subject.

So, in the interest of free speech, I will dare to put my head above the parapet and write about the forbidden topic.

As usual among the hysteria of controversial public debates, I suspect that there are massive over-generalisations on both sides of the argument.

In his ground-breaking report on sexuality, Dr Alfred Kinsey wrote: "Males do not represent two distinct populations, heterosexual and homosexual.

"The world is not divided into sheep and goats. Nature rarely deals with discreet categories. The living world is a continuum."

Not that you would think so by both sides of the contemporary debate on sexuality in which western society screams that if you have any homosexual tendencies whatsoever you should "come out", be proud of your lifestyle, parade it in the streets and indulge every whim and in which the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate advise medical and psychological cures for all.

The problem of the question, "can gays be healed?" is that it centres round the deeper issue of whether living out homosexual inclinations is desirable or not.

According to the Torah, it is not. According to contemporary western attitudes, it most certainly is.

But what about individuals with homosexual tendencies, how much autonomy do they have today between these two opposing attitudes? Not much, especially in this country.

I heard of the case of an individual who was deeply troubled by his homosexual inclinations, which were purely physical, not encompassing any romantic or relationship-based attraction to a person of the same sex.

But every British therapist he went to encouraged him to "come out" as a homosexual, something he really didn't want to do as indulging his desires made him deeply unhappy.

He was only able to move on once he realised that his troubling sexual urges were part of a deeper malaise and that the solution lay in understanding the issues involved rather than indulging the symptoms.

Early 20th-century sex experts like Dr Kinsey and like Manchester psycho-sexual pioneer Dr Raymond Goodman, after whom a Salford NHS sexual health clinic is named, were aware of the complexity of the issue and of how not everyone with homosexual inclinations is ecstatically happy once they have "come out".

Dr Goodman, who in his police work in criminal sexology treats such perversions as the desire for sex with the dead, has had a host of Orthodox Jewish, Muslim and fundamentalist patients, who come to him because they know he will respect their religious beliefs and help them heal their homosexual tendencies if that is their choice.

But I suspect that few therapists in today's climate are so respectful of religious values when it comes to sexual matters, which is ironic when we consider how culturally sensitive they have become towards us in many other respects.

The NHS today places much emphasis on patient choice. Yet when it comes to sexual orientation religious clients are discriminated against.

The choice of whether someone wants to be cured of any condition should be the patient's.

Not that I'm saying that gay "cures" always work.

I am sure they don't, just as all cures do not work and just as most medication and medical procedures have potentially damaging side-effects. But patients are still encouraged to try them.

Nowadays patients' choice is so central an issue that we even have a strong societal push towards a patient's right to die through freely chosen euthanasia, as has been allowed for decades as far as a woman's right to decide on an abortion.

So, in this open medical market place where decisions which flout the Torah like abortion and euthanasia are being almost encouraged, why shouldn't religious people have a right to try to see whether their homosexuality can be cured?

And why should people be discouraged from even suggesting that road without being publicly pilloried?

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