U.K. dumps medical adviser for views on gays in Canada and elsewhere

BY RANDY BOSWELL, Vancouver Sun

 

The British government has dumped a newly appointed member of its high-profile advisory board on national drug policies after the emergence of what government officials called an "embarrassing," six-year-old article co-written by the appointee raising concerns about homosexuality in Canada and elsewhere.

 

The article was co-authored in 2005 by Manchester general practitioner Dr. Hans-Christian Raabe — who had been appointed to U.K. Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs on Jan. 19 — and six fellow physicians.

 

The paper, titled Gay Marriage and Homosexuality: Some Medical Comments, appears on various anti-abortion and conservative Christian websites, and was reportedly presented to Canadian parliamentarians in 2005 as a viewpoint opposing the legalization of same-sex marriage.

 

The paper points to figures from Statistics Canada to assert the "quite small" percentage of self-identified homosexuals in this country and — most controversially in the case of Raabe's U.K. appointment — cites other sources to argue that "any attempts to legalize gay marriage should be aware of the link between homosexuality and pedophilia."

 

Among other places, the paper is posted to a website maintained by the B.C.-based Catholic Education Resource Center. It is accompanied by a notice from CERC that "people who self-identify as gays and lesbians must be treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity," and that the centre does not publish material deemed to "expose gays and lesbians to hatred or intolerance."

 

Raabe's co-authorship of the paper sparked an uproar in Britain soon after his appointment last month to the medical panel. That appointment was "revoked" on Monday, a Home Office spokesman told Postmedia News.

 

"What happened was that when he was appointed, he did not disclose what we would deem to be a controversial report which he co-authored and which made assertions, among other things, which linked homosexuality to pedophilia," the spokesman stated. "As a consequence that raises concerns over his credibility on important issues."

 

Raabe was specifically asked to disclose anything "that might cause embarrassment for the Home Office," the spokesman added.

 

The doctor has indicated in statements to British media that he has never discriminated against gay patients in his own medical practice and that he may sue the U.K. government for being kicked off the anti-drug panel for reasons that have noting to do with his "ability to make a constructive contribution towards the debate on drugs."

 

Regarding the Home Office's request that candidate appointees disclose any source of potential embarrassment, Raabe told the Daily Mail that: "I took that to mean anything illegal or immoral, not an article I'd contributed to six years ago."

 

He added: "They could have found it on Google at any stage. Someone at the Home Office hasn't done their homework."

 

In the Daily Mail interview, Raabe blamed "a small number of activists" for targeting his appointment to the medical panel and added that he may launch a legal challenge of his removal "on a point of principle."

 

Labour MP Bridget Phillipson, a member of U.K. Parliament's committee on Home Affairs, told the BBC on Tuesday that it was an "absolute outrage" the government had appointed "someone with such horrific opinions to this senior role."