Indian state to “cure” gay youth and make them “normal”

The Indian state of Goa is planning to set up gay rehab centres to “treat” LGBT youth and “cure” them of their homosexuality.

According to media reports, the news was announced on Monday by Goa’s Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Ramesh Tawadkar.

“We will make them normal. We will have a centre for them. Like Alcoholic Anonymous centres, we will have centres,” Tawadkar told reporters at the launch of the 2015 Goa Youth Policy.

“We will train them and (give them) medicines too,” he explained,

The state’s Youth Policy lists gay youth among troubled “target groups” such as juvenile criminals and drug users that need “focused attention”.

Homosexuality was made illegal in India in December 2013 when the Supreme Court of India reinstated a colonial era law criminalising gay sex.

It was recently revealed that almost 600 people have been arrested under the law over the past year.

Major medical and mental health organisations around the world have denounced efforts to change sexual orientation or gender expression as ineffective and potentially harmful.