Google axes controversial gay conversion therapy app

San Francisco, March 30 (IANS) Facing immense pressure from the LGBTQ civil rights advocacy groups, Google has removed a controversial app that advocated for gay conversion therapy.The app was earlier removed by Apple, Amazon and Microsoft but it remained on Google's Play Store.The app called "Conversation therapy" came from a non-profit organisation Living Hope Ministries which "proclaims a Christ-centred, Biblical world-view of sexual expression rooted in one man and one woman in a committed, monogamous, heterosexual marriage for life because anything less than this ideal falls short of God's best for humanity".In a statement to Axios late Friday, Google said that after consulting with outside advocacy groups and reviewing its policies, it decided to remove the app from the Play Store.More than 140,000 people had signed a Change.org petition calling on Google to ban the app.The US-based LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group -- Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation -- had suspended Google from its 2019 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) for failing to remove the app.
--IANS na/pg