Ann Widdecombe criticised for gay science remarks
Brexit Party MEP said science may one day ‘produce an answer’ to homosexuality
Ann Widdecombe is under fire after she suggested science might one day “produce an answer” to being gay.
Speaking on Sky News, the Brexit party MEP said she had once pointed out that there was a time when it was thought impossible for people to switch gender.
She added: “The fact that we think it is now quite impossible for people to switch sexuality doesn’t mean that science might not be able to produce an answer at some stage.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Her comments “sparked major fury,” The Sun says, causing social media to “erupt”, notes the Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, the BBC said: “It will be deeply disappointing to the UK's LGBT community that elected representatives, and people with large public platforms not only hold these views but actively promote them.”
ITV News’ political correspondent Paul Brand explained that he has investigated “so called gay 'cure' therapies” and “you won’t find a single medical, psychiatric or psychological body that thinks science can provide an 'answer' to it”.
Politicians have rounded on Widdecombe. Conservative MP Justine Greening tweeted: “We don’t need a cure for love.” The former Tory MP Nick Boles said: “If only science could produce an answer to the blight of poisonous bigotry that is Ann Widdecombe.”
Also taking to Twitter, the Labour MP Luke Pollard wrote: “Utterly ashamed to be represented by this vile woman. Being gay isn’t a disease to be cured.”
The gay Labour MP Wes Streeting added: “Ann Widdecombe is a relic from a bygone era, whose petty prejudices are out of touch with the vast majority in Britain.”
Stephen Doughty, the co-chair of the LGBT+ Parliamentary Labour Party, asked: “Surely Nigel Farage will now be suspending her from the Brexit Party and removing the party whip?”
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also joined the fray, saying Widdecombe was “peddling homophobic nonsense”. Actor Stephen Fry asked: “But will science ever find an answer to Anne Widdecombe?”
This is not the first time that Widdecombe has caused a stir. In 2000 she told MPs she “rejected” the idea “that there is somehow equal validity between the homosexual lifestyle and marriage and family”.
In 2012, she blamed the “homosexual lobby” for “turning all its fire” on conversion therapy. She has also supported chaining pregnant prisoners, and described women's pension age activists as “self-indulgent and entitled”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Home Office worker accused of spiking mistress’s drink with abortion drug
Speed Read Darren Burke had failed to convince his girlfriend to terminate pregnancy
By The Week Staff Published
-
In hock to Moscow: exploring Germany’s woeful energy policy
Speed Read Don’t expect Berlin to wean itself off Russian gas any time soon
By The Week Staff Published
-
Were Covid restrictions dropped too soon?
Speed Read ‘Living with Covid’ is already proving problematic – just look at the travel chaos this week
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Inclusive Britain: a new strategy for tackling racism in the UK
Speed Read Government has revealed action plan setting out 74 steps that ministers will take
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sandy Hook families vs. Remington: a small victory over the gunmakers
Speed Read Last week the families settled a lawsuit for $73m against the manufacturer
By The Week Staff Published
-
Farmers vs. walkers: the battle over ‘Britain’s green and pleasant land’
Speed Read Updated Countryside Code tells farmers: ‘be nice, say hello, share the space’
By The Week Staff Published
-
Motherhood: why are we putting it off?
Speed Read Stats show around 50% of women in England and Wales now don’t have children by 30
By The Week Staff Published
-
Anti-Semitism in America: a case of double standards?
Speed Read Officials were strikingly reluctant to link Texas synagogue attack to anti-Semitism
By The Week Staff Published