A minister in Goa has denied that the government there plans to attempt to “cure” LGBT people and make them “normal”, using therapy and “medicines”.

The announcement of a new strategy to tackle various vulnerable sectors of society was made by Ramesh Tawadkar, the state minister for Sports and Youth Affairs.

He was quoted to have said: “We will make them normal. We will have a centre for them. Like Alcoholic Anonymous centres, we will have centres…”

Asked specifically what the role of the centres will be, he said: “We will train them and [administer them] medicines too.”

“Homosexuality is not genetic. If our parents were homosexuals, then we would not have been born. So it’s unnatural,” Ramdev told local media.

“The Supreme Court has respected the sentiments of the various religious communities of India. Today they are talking of homosexuality, tomorrow they will talk of having sex with animals.”

Speaking after he was heavily criticised for the comments, he added: “I was misunderstood and misquoted. I was not talking about the LGBT (youths) but about drug addicted and sexually abused youths,”

“Youth policy speaks about drug addicted youths and sexually abused youths as a focused group. There are provisions in the central government sponsored Social Justice Scheme for such youths which can be implemented in Goa.”

Some gay travel companies actually charter trips to Goa, despite that it is still illegal to be gay there.