A "gay cure" event in London has been cancelled following a wave of negative backlash. The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s five-day conference, which was due to feature talks from men who claim to have been "cured" of their homosexuality, was condemned by LGBT groups after reports that it had sold out last weekend. change.org petition, which aimed to persuade the government to refuse to issue visas to speakers at the event on the grounds that they would be promoting discrimination, has been signed over 40,000 times within less than 24 hours. In response to the criticism, the organisers have now officially cancelled the event, explaining in a statement that they're saddened that they live in a society that "wishes to silence" people with opposing views. "The Adventist Church recognizes that the individuals invited to speak at the Holy Sexuality Conference have compelling life stories to share but equally appreciate that there are those who take a different point of view," they explained. They added: "We are disappointed that in a society that values freedom of speech and divergence of opinion that there are those whose wish it is to silence individuals who hold a different point of view to their own." Meanwhile, President Barack Obama recently called for an end to gay ‘conversion’ therapies in the United States