'Conversion therapy must be made illegal'

A couple of years ago while on social media Dr Prasad Dandekar stumbled upon a homophobic post What shook me was that it came from a very successful senior doctor from Mumbai whom I had known for years says the head of radiation oncology at Girgaums Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital of the post that claimed the doctor wouldnt allow his kids near homosexuals Dandekar responded in the hope of educating his peer that there was nothing unnatural about homosexuality but that only triggered more venomMy initial reaction was what a horrible man and how could he say this But I eventually realised that the root of all of this was ignorance says the 40yearold who identifies as gay and lives with his partner in MumbaiOn Thursday the Supreme Court in a landmark verdict shot down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised homosexuality in IndiaOn Thursday as the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in India shooting down Section 377 with the now famous words What makes life meaningful is love The right that makes us human is the right to love To criminalise the expression of that right is profoundly cruel and inhumane While the law has caught up the perception within the countrys medical community might still be a few steps behindPowaibased clinical psychologist Hvovi Bhagwagar admits to raging social media debates on the subject Theres no denying that medical practitioners have some amount of homophobia even if its a minority Most of course would not admit to it How can you be a doctor and propagate these beliefs Its like sending an astronaut into space who thinks that the world is square she says On Saturday she tweeted A new law is now needed Revoking licenses of mentalhealth professionals doing conversiontherapy promising parents they can convert their homosexual child to normalOn Friday a Facebook post by her on LGBTQ rights saw many from the medical fraternity responding admitting the bias exists and that it needs to be countered at the earliestAt the Health Professionals for Queer Indians seminars Dr Prasad Dandekar discusses how and when one should discuss their sexuality with parents and friendsAcademic discussion neededLaunched in March this year to sensitise medical professionals in issues faced by the queer community Dandekars collective Health Professionals for Queer Indians has only had three sessions so far in Mumbai Delhi and Chennai During the Mumbai seminar Dandekar recalls a Pune doctor proudly stating that he had successfully rehabilitated homosexuals and that they were now married I told him he had ruined lives he says But the ignorance among health professionals can be put down to the fact that the issue is barely discussed in the curriculumIn the MBBS syllabus theres very little on the subject We need to talk about this in detail Dandekar says Last year a forensics textbook suggesting that lesbianism was a perversion and that only women who were mental degenerates or nymphomaniacs were lesbians shocked the community The text on page 430 of the secondyear MBBS textbook titled The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology was first printed in 1973 reads Tribadism Female homosexuality is known as tribadism or lesbianism According to Greek mythology women of the Isle of Lesbos practised this perversion The updated version carries the same paragraph without the subhead of Sexual PerversionYet Dr Dileep Mhaiskar ViceChancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences MUHS believes the state syllabus is sufficient In the existing practice there is already a general idea of being sensitive towards all genders After the governments recognition for transgender special instructions were included regarding sensitisation in treating them he saysBut Dr Shubhangi Parkar professor and head of the psychiatry department at Parels KEM College says the Maharashtra syllabus doesnt address homosexuality specifically Nobody discusses this issue unless a patient brings it up during training of medical students she saysThe affect on patientsRicha Vashista clinic and counseling head of The Humsafar Trust a nonprofit that works for LGBTQ rights says in 2016 the team conducted a Queers Against Quacks programme In pretend calls we contacted doctors saying we are homosexual I dont like that about myself What should I do We had many homophobic and malpractising sic doctors saying say Come to our clinic We will comfort you and give you a process and everything In fact we also had some people post their experiences online she says Vashista says they do get some patients who took medication for treatment and even got hospitalised The 27yearold who studied psychology at SNDT Womens University says as a student she did not receive training on how to counsel an LGBTQ person Or what she needed to understand about the community in generalThere is literally just one page in an entire book that talks about homosexuality and how it once used to be a disorder and now isnt Thats no justice to someone who is LGBTQ she saysBridging the gapDr Avinash De Sousa member of Indian Psychiatric Society and task force on LGBTQ mental health issues says whats necessary is already in the curriculum It does touch upon gender and sexuality Its not as if I have dengue or somebody from the queer community has dengue the treatment will be different Unless there are specific issues related to LGBTQ problems its all the same interpersonal issues that need to be addressed After all we are all human beingsBut there is a gap between the curriculum in India and in the West where there are detailed sections on sexual health LGBTQ legal and ethical issues and mental healthDandekar begins his seminars with a 20minute film which includes interviews of seven different people from the LGBTQ community discussing the trauma they suffered at the hands of incapable doctors This is followed by a talk explaining different sexualities such as gay lesbian cisgender etc The last component is on coming out the need for it the right time how to prepare parentsfriends and creating a support system for yourselfIn 2016 Humsafar released a 53page manual aimed towards sensitising counsellors Coauthored by Vashista it featured case interviews with 10 parents who have accepted the sexuality of their LGBTQ children In our curriculum we should talk about sex gender and sexuality in detail and differentiating sex from gender We need to talk about sexuality and sexual orientation and the different sexualities that people can experience and feel We need to focus on mental health concerns that people who are LGBTQ can have because of stigma and discrimination and how you should sensitively handle that she says adding When LGBTQ people come out to their families its mostly the mothers who start blaming themselves She thinks that it has happened because of herSo it is important to talk about family We need to teach the medical fraternity how to make the LGBTQ community comfortable address their mental health needs We need to prepare doctors now Parkar saysSupport from IPAEarlier this year the Indian Psychiatric Association issued a statement supporting members of the LGBTQ community addressing the stigma associated with being queer The statement said In the opinion of the Indian Psychiatric Association homosexuality is not a psychiatric disorder This is in line with the position of the American Psychiatric Association and the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organisation which removed homosexuality from the list of psychiatric disorders in 1973 and 1992 respectivelyThe syllabus is sufficient Its not like if a queer person has dengue the treatment will be different than for a straight person Its the same with mental health issuesAvinash De SousaMember of Indian Psychiatric SocietyWe need to teach and learn how to make them queer members comfortable What we probably need now is to prepare the doctorsDr Shubhangi ParkarHead KEM psychiatry departmentHow can you be a doctor and propagate these homophobic beliefs Its like sending an astronaut who thinks the world is square into spaceHvovi BhagwagarClinical psychologistAlso Read LGBTQ Community Delighted With Supreme Courts Decision To Abolish Section 377Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates