Principal to investigate 'gay is illness' lesson

(ANSA) - Turin, November 3 - The principal of the school where last week a religion teacher allegedly called being gay an illness said on Monday the allegations are a "serious incident" and the school has the responsibility to look into the matter.
    "There may be homosexual students and teachers [at our school]. It's my duty to make sure this place remains somewhere that everyone can be welcomed and enjoy the same rights," said Stefano Fava, principal of Itis Pininfarina school in Moncalieri, a few miles south of Turin.
    Last week, Fava was told of the Catholic religion lesson that some students called "the perfect manual for homophobia", in which a teacher allegedly said being gay is "a psychological problem which science has demonstrated is curable".
    Students said the teacher allegedly went on to describe a case to back up the theory, in which a doctor, traumatized in childhood by seeing his mother's cadaver, became homosexual, and was then "converted" to heterosexuality after months of psychoanalytic therapy, and "even" had children and a family thereafter. Fava said he couldn't comment on the internal investigation but in coming days he would interview both the teacher in question as well as the students who attended the lesson, and would send his findings to the regional scholastic office.
    Local middle school students responded to reports of the lesson by requesting to abolish Catholic education in public schools and replace it with lessons in religious history.