The UK's best known gay equality campaigner is sure that some British churches are performing 'gay exorcisms' and wants a police investigation. A grim scene from the Connecticut 'gay exorcism' video A British newspaper claimed this week that a Pentecostal church in north-west London offers the controversial 'cure' for homosexuality. "The evil spirits are telling you what's wrong is right, the opposite sex is not attractive," Rev John Ogbe-Ogbeide, who runs the United Pentecostal Ministry in Harrow, told Metro. He claims he carries out exorcisms on four or five gay people a year, which always turn them straight. Tatchell is concerned that "the exorcisms can include traumatic emotional scenes where the victims are surrounded by a group of church elders who scream at them to drive out the evil spirits and who sometimes shake their bodies. "When this is done to youngsters under 18, it is a form of child abuse and the police should intervene to stop it." Dramatic video footage of a 'gay exorcism' in the US state of Connecticut was uploaded to YouTube last month, prompting international outcry. A local gay youth group claimed the footage showed a regular church ritual and was 'unfortunately not an isolated incident'.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Friday, 24th July 2009 - 9:42am