Lesbian Files Complaint Against Doctor 'Who Prescribed Anti-Gay Treatment'

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/02/020206lesbDr.htm

A 36-year old Kissimmee woman who mentioned to her doctor during a routine checkup that she is a lesbian has filed complaints with the Florida Department of Health and CIGNA Healthcare against him and his assistant for advocating she change her sexual orientation.

Jamie Beiler alleges that at the end of her appointment with Dr. John R. Hartman she was handed a packet of anti-gay propaganda referring to homosexuality as “sinful” and advising lesbians and gay men to change their sexual orientation.

The complaints, filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights on behalf of Beiler, allege that during the March 2005 visit, Dr. Hartman and his medical assistant Dawn Pope-Wright falsely presented their personal beliefs as medical information and provided her with unwanted treatment that has been rejected as ineffective by all major health and mental health organizations.

[Mnemosyne]

1. Shaking head and sighing... n/t

[montana500]

2. that's just sad.

people have no morals.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. I suppose it would be too much to expect...

... that his medical license gets pulled? I see little difference between this and telling someone with pneumonia to forget about antibiotics and instead attend the medicine show of Doctor Quack and his Magic Elixer.

[Kerrytravelers]

4. What a wonderful bedside manner.

:eyes:

[Maat]

5. Shaking head and sighing too ..

it's bad enough to confront this kind of ignorance in someone else - but a MEDICAL DOCTOR?

That's the problem I ran into as a social worker (with a Master's Degree in Psychology) - I met M.D.'s (not psychiatrists) who thought they could evaluate mental health treatment - when most of them had less of a background in psychology and mental health classes than I did (by about 20 classes to 1 - mine over theirs). I used to tell people that if they wanted a mental health evaluation - go to a mental health professional. I had a client prescribed the wrong psychotropic medication by her eye doctor!

This is just horrible malpractice, in my opinion. Most of us having a background in the mental-health/social-services field feel any professional participating in one of those 'ex-gay' programs ought to have their license yanked.