Website of the week: http://www.adec.org/
Authors: D. Carnall
Journal: BMJ (1998)

Members of parliament and the bishops at the last Lambeth conference were circulated with an open letter on sexuality signed by 23 doctors. This gives dire warnings about the dangers of anal intercourse, and urges that the age of consent for homosexuals should not be reduced.

At least two of the doctors who signed the statement have written for or been quoted in documents produced by “Christian” organisations in the past year or so. These organisations include the Association of Christian Teachers, Christian Action in Research and Education, the Maranatha Community, Cost of Conscience and Reform (jointly), and the Christian Institute. The documents vary in length, but are all similar in content. They include a medical section, “written by doctors,” which warns of the medical consequences of homosexuality; a social section, which links homosexuality with paedophilia; and a religious section, which says the Bible is against homosexuality.

Well that’s life, and religious cranks are always with us. But the medical evidence that the doctors quote in these documents is not what you might expect.You might think that they would be giving the latest data about the incidence of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and saying that these are spread by penetrative sex, anal or vaginal; that condoms reduce the risk but can fail, so the only safe situation for penetrative sex is within a lifelong, faithful partnership.

Instead of this, the medical sections of these documents quote obscure references to clinical surveys of small groups of homosexual people, derived from lists of attenders at genitourinary medicine clinics, or recruited from gay bars and other selected groups. These report high levels of HIV infection, other infections, or alcohol and drug abuse. They are clinical reports and no doubt valuable as such. The doctors give brief summaries of the findings but usually omit to mention that they are surveys of groups highly at risk, not of the general public.


In the social section of these documents—some contributed by doctors—equally arcane references are quoted to support the alleged link between homosexuals and paedophiles. The references are to surveys of convicted child abusers, which claim to have higher than expected proportions of homosexuals. The statistics, however, are minimal and do not include refinements such as significance values. In the brief reports of these given in the documents, the fact that the groups studied are all convicted child offenders is not mentioned. Perhaps if we knew what proportion of child sex offenders are caught and sentenced some extrapolations to the general population might be possible, but we do not know this proportion. It is probably small. 


Most people have a relative or friend who is lesbian or gay



It seems to me that these doctors have created a distorted picture of the medical facts to imply that the risks of homosexuality are very great and the risks of heterosexuality are minimal. It seems to add up to a campaign of calumniation against gay and lesbian people. The General Medical Council does not allow doctors to let their views about a patient’s lifestyle or sexuality prejudice the treatment they give. But, the GMC has confirmed, doctors can say whatever they like about people’s lifestyle or sexuality if it does not affect the treatment of their patients. No doubt these doctors are kind to their patients—though what their lesbian and gay patients think when they read their own doctor’s views in these documents is not recorded. I do not understand why they see so much difference between saying something face to face and saying it in a public document.

A part of doctors’ duties is to explain the importance and consequences of their advice. This they do not do; but the innuendo seems to be that active sex among gay people is too dangerous to contemplate. And by curious coincidence or divine diktat, this fits with the Christian message which says that homosexual activity is immoral. You wonder whether they think that medical researchers working for the abolition of disease are doing God’s work.

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) has heterosexual as well as gay and lesbian members and is working to counteract homophobia. None of my business, you say? Well we are all supposed to be working to achieve a national target to reduce suicides, which needs a helping hand in this area. And most people have a relative or friend who is lesbian or gay; if not, it is likely that you don’t know your relatives and friends as well as you think you do. So if you receive a copy of the open letter when it is released I hope that you will write and protest about it. And it would make a real and positive difference if you also join the LGCM (tel: 0171 739 1249).

Possible conflict of interest—I am a member of the LGCM and my wife is a Church of England priest and a hospital chaplain.