Dire straights

Here we go again: straight (possibly) Christians who think they can turn gay people away from their homosexuality.

One such is Dr Paul Miller, a consultant psychiatrist from Carrickfergus and a senior health adviser to the chair of Northern Ireland Assembly's Health Committee.

We don't learn of his Christian credentials in an an atrociously punctuated story in the Belfast News Letter until almost the end. But you could have guessed it all along, of course.

And just who is this committee chair to whom he is a senior health adviser? Well, none other than Iris Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who is on record, loud and clear, as having said homosexuality is an abomination. And where have we heard that sort of language before? In the Bible, of course. So it must be right, then.

Miller is a former member of the executive of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Well, perhaps his career as a shrink will take a knock after these crazy and dangerous claims that he can turn gays into straights. It's telling that that very Royal College of Psychiatrists has rejected this nutcase's claim. But no one's yet saying he should resign his post as a director of the Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health.

The News Letter says Miller had begun his work "trying to help homosexuals become heterosexual" after a patient "struggling with his sexuality" committed suicide.

"One of the things that kept coming up was people who had a conflict between their religious identity and their sexual identity," Miller tells the publication.

Now this bloke is probably quite clever. He's been to university and all that, got a degree, got a doctorate. And yet he can't see what is right in front of his bigoted, religion-soaked face: a conflict between religious identity and sexual identity. Is there any wonder the guy topped himself and others do likewise when pillocks – dangerous pillocks – like this refuse to disabuse them of the notion that there is something wrong with them if their sexuality is not the one recommended in the thousands-year-old scrawlings of nomadic herders, but tell them that they'll be happier trying to turn straight?

It never occurs to these disturbed sickos that sexuality is natural and their adherence to said desert nomads' ramblings is entirely unnatural.

As for Iris bloody Robinson, have a look at this, also in the News Letter. She said, "My Christian beliefs teach me that you love the sinner but hate the sin. But homosexuality is something that is an abomination."

She was on BBC Radio Ulster condemning a violent homophobic attack, but went on to attack homosexuality in tones that will only feed the toxic minds of those who go around queerbashing. This monster had been challenged by the Sinn Féin education minister Caitriona Ruane, who had phoned in to challenge her comments.

Robinson said she would defend her right to express religious beliefs, while also condemning violence against the gay community. Yes, she does have a right to express religious belief, but while she's being paid to mouth about politics and policies, why doesn't she stick to those? What is a politician – on this side of the Atlantic, anyway – doing using her office as a platform for her superstitions? She was elected as a member of the DUP, not her church.

Her comments have already found their way into her entry in Wikipedia.

UPDATE: Since this post was published at 3 a.m. today, British Summer Time, we've learned from the Mail on Sunday that this revolting woman is being investigated by police. The story says,

In an outburst on a live phone-in on BBC Radio Ulster on Friday, Iris Robinson, the 57-year-old wife of First Minister Peter Robinson, referred to gays as "disgusting, loathsome, shamefully wicked and vile". She called homosexuality "an abomination" but said she knew of a cure.

She then went on to talk of that darling trick cyclist we opened this post with.

The paper tells us that Andrew Muir, the 31-year-old coordinator of a pressure group called GLAD (Gays and Lesbians Across (County) Down), has made a formal complaint to police. "They were reluctant to pursue the matter until I told them it was covered by the hate crimes legislation and I would not be leaving until they took a statement from me," he said.

Now I'm not sure she shouldn't be able to say what she wishes, and I'm not at all sure that so-called "hate crime" legislation is a well-thought-through idea (it just gives police more powers and, anyway, how do you prove hate?); but I would take issue with her dumping her hateful and vituperative religious baggage on us while being interviewed as a leading politician, one of whose jobs is to ensure community cohesion and the equality of service for all people in her patch. And she is, let's not forget, the chair of the Assembly's Health Committee.

What I have no compunction in hoping for, however, is that this misguided, hateful woman is hounded with ridicule until she feels the need to leave office.