Israeli education minister favours gay 'conversion therapy'
Source: Reuters
WORLD NEWS JULY 13, 2019 / 4:26 PM / UPDATED 40 MINUTES AGO
Israeli education minister favours gay 'conversion therapy'
Dan Williams
3 MIN READ
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israels education minister voiced support on Saturday for so-called gay conversion therapy, drawing a disavowal from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose governments religious-rightist tilt has worried liberals a home and backers abroad.
Conversion therapy, an attempt to alter sexual orientation or gender identity through psychological, spiritual and, in extreme cases, physical means, has been widely discredited in the West and condemned by professional health associations such as the American Medical Association as potentially harmful.
Rafael Peretz, an Orthodox rabbi and head of the ultranationalist United Right party who assumed the education portfolio in the Netanyahu-led coalition last month, said in a television interview he believed conversion therapy can work.
I have a very deep familiarity with the issue of education, and I have also done this, he told Israels Channel 12 TV.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-lgbt/israeli-education-minister-favours-gay-conversion-therapy-idUSKCN1U80NX