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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2005 
Group To Offer 'Cure' For Homosexuals
 Thelma Gómez Durán - El Universal
| | Courage Latino has embarked on a campaign in Mexico to "cure" gays with the backing of the Catholic church using a controversial therapy. |
He says he came to live a life of solitude, but according to Donald Wainwright, a 75-year-old U.S. citizen and Tepotzlan, Morelos, resident of 37 years, "God had other plans for me." Donning his monastic name Bonaventure, he will be addressing the Mexican Episcopal Council of Bishops this Tuesday on his new mission in life, "curing" gays.
Bonaventure will be discussing his group Courage Latino, a faith-based group that uses a technique known as "reparative" or "curative" therapy to "reorient those who wish to no longer be gay for them to feel heterosexual by addressing the damage that caused the infirmity, typically a sexual assault or brutal father figure."
This form of therapy has been roundly rejected by a procession of mental health professional organizations.
The American Psychiatric Association in its 1998 position statement on Psychiatric Treatment and Sexual Orientation says: "The potential risks of 'reparative therapy' are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior." This attitude is reinforced by similar positions given by the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with numerous psychological and medical organizations that together represent more than 477,000 health and mental health professionals.
However, Bonaventure is not alone on his controversial mission. At his side is Óscar Rivas, a 26-yearold designer who proclaims that he "is cured." He has been working to form a Catholic organization focusing on rehabilitating gays with reparative therapy.
To achieve their objectives they have invited the Father John Harvey founder of the organization "Courage," a Catholic organization that promotes chastity among same-sexattracted individuals, to advise them. Harvey gained notoriety as a champion of the psychological treatment of homosexuality whose organization has grown into over 100 chapters around the world and has garnered the praise of former Pope John Paul II and many others within the Catholic church for its work to "help homosexuals to live chaste lives." Courage Latino would be the first chapter in a Latin American country.
Next week, Rivas plans to have his first meeting with those seeking treatment at the Centro Juvenil Gaudalupano at the Basílica de Guadalupe and he is confident that he will have the full backing of the Mexican bishops. He hopes to help others like himself, "When I was in therapy I thought about having a family and children. I hope some day God will give them to me." |
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