From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, may be based on irrational fear and ignorance, and is often related to religious beliefs.
Homophobia is observable in critical and hostile behavior such as discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientations that are non-heterosexual. Recognized types of homophobia include institutionalized homophobia, e.g. religious homophobia and state-sponsored homophobia, and internalized homophobia, experienced by people who have same-sex attractions, regardless of how they identify.
Negative attitudes toward identifiable LGBT groups have similar yet specific names: lesbophobia is the intersection of homophobia and sexism directed against lesbians, gayphobia is the dislike or hatred of gay men, biphobia targets bisexuality and bisexual people, and transphobia targets transgender and transsexual people and gender variance or gender role nonconformity. According to 2010 Hate Crimes Statistics released by the FBI National Press Office, 19.3 percent of hate crimes across the United States "were motivated by a sexual orientation bias." Moreover, in a Southern Poverty Law Center 2010 Intelligence Report
extrapolating data from fourteen years (1995–2008), which had complete
data available at the time, of the FBI's national hate crime statistics
found that LGBT people were "far more likely than any other minority group in the United States to be victimized by violent hate crime."
Origin of the term
Although sexual attitudes tracing back to Ancient Greece (8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity
(ca. 600 AD) have been termed homophobia by scholars, and it is used to
describe an intolerance towards homosexuality and homosexuals that grew
during the Middle Ages, especially by adherents of Islam and Christianity, the term itself is relatively new.
Coined by George Weinberg, a psychologist, in the 1960s, the term homophobia is a blend of (1) the word homosexual, itself a mix of neo-classical morphemes, and (2) phobia from the Greek φόβος, phóbos, meaning "fear", "morbid fear" or "aversion". Weinberg is credited as the first person to have used the term in speech. The word homophobia first appeared in print in an article written for the May 23, 1969, edition of the American pornographic magazine Screw, in which the word was used to refer to heterosexual men's fear that others might think they are gay.
Conceptualizing anti-LGBT prejudice as a social problem worthy of scholarly attention was not new. A 1969 article in Time
described examples of negative attitudes toward homosexuality as
"homophobia", including "a mixture of revulsion and apprehension" which
some called homosexual panic. In 1971, Kenneth Smith used homophobia as a personality profile to describe the psychological aversion to homosexuality. Weinberg also used it this way in his 1972 book Society and the Healthy Homosexual, published one year before the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Weinberg's term became an important tool for gay and lesbian activists, advocates, and their allies. He describes the concept as a medical phobia:
[A] phobia about homosexuals.... It
was a fear of homosexuals which seemed to be associated with a fear of
contagion, a fear of reducing the things one fought for — home and
family. It was a religious fear and it had led to great brutality as
fear always does.
In 1981, homophobia was used for the first time in The Times (of London) to report that the General Synod of the Church of England voted to refuse to condemn homosexuality.
However, when taken literally, homophobia may be a
problematic term. Professor David A. F. Haaga says that contemporary
usage includes "a wide range of negative emotions, attitudes and
behaviours toward homosexual people," which are characteristics that are
not consistent with accepted definitions of phobias, that of "an
intense, illogical, or abnormal fear of a specified thing." Five key
differences are listed as distinguishing homophobia, as often used, from
a true phobia.
Classification
Brochure used by
Save Our Children, a political coalition formed in 1977 in
Miami,
Florida,
U.S., to overturn a recently legislated county ordinance that banned
discrimination in areas of housing, employment, and public accommodation
based on sexual orientation
Homophobia manifests in different forms, and a number of different
types have been postulated, among which are internalized homophobia,
social homophobia, emotional homophobia, rationalized homophobia, and
others. There were also ideas to classify homophobia, racism, and sexism as an intolerant personality disorder.
In 1992, the American Psychiatric Association,
recognizing the power of the stigma against homosexuality, issued the
following statement, reaffirmed by the Board of Trustees, July 2011:
Whereas homosexuality per se
implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general
social or vocational capabilities, the American Psychiatric Association
(APA) calls on all international health organizations, psychiatric
organizations, and individual psychiatrists in other countries to urge
the repeal in their own countries of legislation that penalizes
homosexual acts by consenting adults in private. Further, APA calls on
these organizations and individuals to do all that is possible to
decrease the stigma related to homosexuality wherever and whenever it
may occur.
Institutionalized homophobia
Religious attitudes
Religious protestors at a pride parade in
Jerusalem, with a sign that reads, "Homo sex is immoral (
Lev. 18/22)". The association of homosexual sex with immorality or sinfulness is seen by many as a homophobic act.
Many world religions contain anti-homosexual teachings, while other
religions have varying degrees of ambivalence, neutrality, or
incorporate teachings that regard homosexuals as third gender.
Even within some religions which generally discourage homosexuality,
there are also people who view homosexuality positively, and some religious denominations bless or conduct same-sex marriages. There also exist so-called Queer religions, dedicated to serving the spiritual needs of LGBTQI persons. Queer theology seeks to provide a counterpoint to religious homophobia. In 2015, attorney and author Roberta Kaplan stated that Kim Davis "is the clearest example of someone who wants to use a religious liberty argument to discriminate [against same-sex couples]."
Christianity and the Bible
Passages commonly interpreted as condemning homosexuality or same-gender sexual relations are found in both Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Leviticus 18:22, says "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
is also commonly seen as a condemnation of homosexuality. Christians
and Jews who oppose homosexuality often cite such passages; historical
context and interpretation is more complicated. Scholarly debate over
the interpretation of these passages has focused on placing them in
proper historical context, for instance pointing out that Sodom's sins
are historically interpreted as being other than homosexuality, and on
the translation of rare or unusual words in the passages in question. In
Religion Dispatches
magazine, Candace Chellew-Hodge argues that the six or so verses that
are often cited to condemn LGBT people are referring instead to "abusive
sex". She states that the Bible has no condemnation for "loving,
committed, gay and lesbian relationships" and that Jesus was silent on the subject. This view is opposed by a number of conservative evangelicals, including Robert A. J. Gagnon
The official teaching of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality is that same-sex behavior should not be expressed. In the United States, a February 2012 Pew Research Center poll shows that Catholics support gay marriage by a margin of 52% to 37%. That is a shift upwards from 2010, when 46% of Catholics favored gay marriage.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church States that, "'homosexual acts are
intrinsically disordered.'...They are contrary to the natural law....
Under no circumstances can they be approved."
Islam and sharia
In some cases, the distinction between religious homophobia and
state-sponsored homophobia is not clear, a key example being territories
under Islamic authority. All major Islamic sects forbid homosexuality, which is a crime under Sharia Law and treated as such in most Muslim countries. In Afghanistan, for instance, homosexuality carried the death penalty under the Taliban.
After their fall, homosexuality was reduced from a capital crime to one
that is punished with fines and prison sentences. The legal situation
in the United Arab Emirates, however, is unclear.
In 2009, the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) published a report entitled State Sponsored Homophobia 2009,
which is based on research carried out by Daniel Ottosson at Södertörn
University College, Stockholm, Sweden. This research found that of the
80 countries around the world that continue to consider homosexuality
illegal:
- Five carry the death penalty for homosexual activity: Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, the Iranian government has executed more than 4,000 people charged with homosexual acts.
In Saudi Arabia, the maximum punishment for homosexuality is public
execution, but the government will use other punishments – e.g., fines,
jail time, whipping –
and even forced sex change as alternatives, unless it feels that people
engaging in homosexual activity are challenging state authority by
engaging in LGBT social movements.
- Two do in some regions: Nigeria, Somalia
In 2001, Al-Muhajiroun, an international organization seeking the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate, issued a fatwa declaring that all members of The Al-Fatiha Foundation (which advances the cause of gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims) were murtadd, or apostates,
and condemning them to death. Because of the threat and because they
come from conservative societies, many members of the foundation's site
still prefer to be anonymous so as to protect their identities while
they are continuing a tradition of secrecy.
In some regions, gay people have been persecuted and murdered by Islamist militias, such as Al-Nusra Front and ISIL in parts of Iraq and Syria.
Worldwide laws regarding same-sex intercourse, unions and expression
| Same-sex intercourse illegal. Penalties: |
| | Prison; death not enforced |
Death under militias | Prison, w/ arrests or detention |
Prison, not enforced1 |
|
| Same-sex intercourse legal. Recognition of unions: |
| | Extraterritorial marriage3 |
| | |
Limited foreign | Optional certification |
None | Restrictions of expression |
Rings indicate local or case-by-case application.
1No arrests in the past three years or moratorium on law.2For some jurisdictions the law may not yet be in effect. 3Marriage not available locally. Some jurisdictions may perform other types of partnerships. State-sponsored homophobia includes the criminalization and
penalization of homosexuality, hate speech from government figures, and
other forms of discrimination, violence, persecution of LGBT people.
Past governments
In medieval Europe, homosexuality was considered sodomy and it was punishable by death. Persecutions reached their height during the Medieval Inquisitions, when the sects of Cathars and Waldensians were accused of fornication and sodomy, alongside accusations of Satanism. In 1307, accusations of sodomy and homosexuality were major charges leveled during the Trial of the Knights Templar. The theologian Thomas Aquinas was influential in linking condemnations of homosexuality with the idea of natural law,
arguing that "special sins are against nature, as, for instance, those
that run counter to the intercourse of male and female natural to
animals, and so are peculiarly qualified as unnatural vices."
Although bisexuality was accepted as normal human behavior in Ancient China, homophobia became ingrained in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China due to interactions with the Christian West, and homosexual behaviour was outlawed in 1740. When Mao Zedong came to power, the government thought of homosexuality as "social disgrace or a form of mental illness", and "[d]uring the cultural revolution
(1966–76), people who were homosexual faced their worst period of
persecution in Chinese history." Despite there being no law in the communist
People's Republic against homosexuality, "police regularly rounded up
gays and lesbians." Other laws were used to prosecute homosexual people
and they were "charged with hooliganism or disturbing public order."
The Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin decriminalized homosexuality in 1922, long before many other European countries. The Soviet Communist Party effectively legalized no-fault divorce, abortion and homosexuality, when they abolished all the old Tsarist laws and the initial Soviet criminal code kept these liberal sexual policies in place. Lenin's emancipation was reversed a decade later by Joseph Stalin and homosexuality remained illegal under Article 121 until the Yeltsin era.
In Nazi Germany, gay men were persecuted and approximately five to fifteen thousand were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.
Current governments
Homosexuality is illegal in 74 countries. The North Korean government condemns Western gay culture as a vice caused by the decadence of a capitalist society, and it denounces it as promoting consumerism, classism, and promiscuity. In North Korea, "violating the rules of collective socialist life" can be punished with up to two years' imprisonment.
However, according to the North Korean government, "As a country that
has embraced science and rationalism, the DPRK recognizes that many
individuals are born with homosexuality as a genetic trait and treats
them with due respect. Homosexuals in the DPRK have never been subject
to repression, as in many capitalist regimes around the world."
Robert Mugabe, the former president of Zimbabwe, waged a violent campaign against LGBT people, arguing that before colonisation, Zimbabweans did not engage in homosexual acts. His first major public condemnation of homosexuality was in August 1995, during the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.
He told an audience: "If you see people parading themselves as lesbians
and gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police!" In September 1995, Zimbabwe's parliament introduced legislation banning homosexual acts. In 1997, a court found Canaan Banana, Mugabe's predecessor and the first President of Zimbabwe, guilty of 11 counts of sodomy and indecent assault.
In Poland local towns, cities, and Voivodeship sejmiks have declared their respective regions as LGBT ideology free zone with the encouragement of the ruling Law and Justice party.
Internalized homophobia
Internalized homophobia refers to negative stereotypes, beliefs, stigma, and prejudice about homosexuality and LGBT people that a person with same-sex attraction turns inward on themselves, whether or not they identify as LGBT.
The degree to which someone is affected by these ideas depends on how
much and which ideas they have consciously and subconsciously
internalized. These negative beliefs can be mitigated with education, life experience and therapy, especially with gay-friendly psychotherapy/analysis.
Internalized homophobia also applies to conscious or unconscious
behaviors which a person feels the need to promote or conform to
cultural expectations of heteronormativity
or heterosexism. This can include extreme repression and denial coupled
with forced outward displays of heteronormative behavior for the
purpose of appearing or attempting to feel "normal" or "accepted". Other
expressions of internalized homophobia can also be subtle. Some less
overt behaviors may include making assumptions about the gender of a
person's romantic partner, or about gender roles. Some researchers also apply this label to LGBT people who support "compromise" policies, such as those that find civil unions acceptable in place of same-sex marriage.
Some studies have shown that people who are homophobic are more likely to have repressed homosexual desires.
In 1996, a controlled study of 64 heterosexual men (half said they were
homophobic by experience, with self-reported orientation) at the
University of Georgia found that men who were found to be homophobic (as
measured by the Index of Homophobia) were considerably more likely to experience more erectile responses when exposed to homoerotic images than non-homophobic men. Weinstein et al. 2012
arrived at similar results when researchers found that students who
came from "the most rigid anti-gay homes" were most likely to reveal
repressed homosexual attraction.
The researchers said that this explained why some religious leaders who
denounce homosexuality are later revealed to have secret homosexual
relations. They noted that "these people are at war with themselves and are turning this internal conflict outward."
A 2016 eye-tracking study showed that heterosexual men with high
negative impulse reactions toward homosexuals gazed for longer periods
at homosexual imagery than other heterosexual men.
According to Cheval et al. (2016), these findings reinforce the
necessity to consider that homophobia might reflect concerns about
sexuality in general and not homosexuality in particular. In contrast, Jesse Marczyk argued in Psychology Today that homophobia is not repressed homosexuality.
Researcher Iain R. Williamson, in his 1998 paper "Internalized
Homophobia and Health Issues Affecting Lesbians and Gay Men" finds the
term homophobia to be "highly problematic" but for reasons of
continuity and consistency with the majority of other publications on
the issue retains its use rather than using more accurate but obscure
terminology. The phrase internalized sexual stigma is sometimes used in place to represent internalized homophobia.
An internalized stigma arises when a person believes negative
stereotypes about themselves, regardless of where the stereotypes come
from. It can also refer to many stereotypes beyond sexuality and gender roles. Internalized homophobia can cause discomfort with and disapproval of one's own sexual orientation. Ego-dystonic sexual orientation or egodystonic
homophobia, for instance, is a condition characterized by having a
sexual orientation or an attraction that is at odds with one's idealized
self-image, causing anxiety
and a desire to change one's orientation or become more comfortable
with one's sexual orientation. Such a situation may cause extreme
repression of homosexual desires.
In other cases, a conscious internal struggle may occur for some time,
often pitting deeply held religious or social beliefs against strong
sexual and emotional desires. This discordance can cause clinical depression, and a higher rate of suicide among LGBT youth (up to 30 percent of non-heterosexual youth attempt suicide) has been attributed to this phenomenon. Psychotherapy, such as gay affirmative psychotherapy,
and participation in a sexual-minority affirming group can help resolve
the internal conflicts, such as between religious beliefs and sexual
identity. Even informal therapies that address understanding and accepting of non-heterosexual orientations can prove effective.
Many diagnostic "Internalized Homophobia Scales" can be used to measure
a person's discomfort with their sexuality and some can be used by
people regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Critics of the scales
note that they presume a discomfort with non-heterosexuality which in
itself enforces heternormativity.
Social homophobia
The fear of being identified as gay can be considered as a form of social homophobia. Theorists including Calvin Thomas and Judith Butler
have suggested that homophobia can be rooted in an individual's fear of
being identified as gay. Homophobia in men is correlated with
insecurity about masculinity. For this reason, homophobia is allegedly rampant in sports, and in the subculture of its supporters that is considered stereotypically male, such as association football and rugby.
These theorists have argued that a person who expresses
homophobic thoughts and feelings does so not only to communicate their
beliefs about the class of gay people, but also to distance themselves
from this class and its social status. Thus, by distancing themselves
from gay people, they are reaffirming their role as a heterosexual in a heteronormative
culture, thereby attempting to prevent themselves from being labeled
and treated as a gay person. This interpretation alludes to the idea
that a person may posit violent opposition to "the Other" as a means of
establishing their own identity as part of the majority and thus gaining
social validation.
Nancy J. Chodorow states that homophobia can be viewed as a method of protection of male masculinity.
Various psychoanalytic
theories explain homophobia as a threat to an individual's own same-sex
impulses, whether those impulses are imminent or merely hypothetical.
This threat causes repression, denial or reaction formation.
Distribution of attitudes
Between
January 2010 and November 2014, 47 individuals have been killed due to
their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity in Turkey
according to online news sources.
Disapproval of homosexuality and of gay people is not evenly
distributed throughout society, but is more or less pronounced according
to age, ethnicity, geographic location, race, sex, social class, education, partisan identification and religious status. According to UK HIV/AIDS charity AVERT,
religious views, lack of homosexual feelings or experiences, and lack
of interaction with gay people are strongly associated with such views.
The anxiety of heterosexual individuals (particularly adolescents
whose construction of heterosexual masculinity is based in part on not
being seen as gay) that others may identify them as gay has also been identified by Michael Kimmel as an example of homophobia. The taunting of boys seen as eccentric (and who are not usually gay) is said to be endemic in rural and suburban American schools, and has been associated with risk-taking behavior and outbursts of violence (such as a spate of school shootings) by boys seeking revenge or trying to assert their masculinity. Homophobic bullying is also very common in schools in the United Kingdom. At least 445 LGBT Brazilians were either murdered or committed suicide in 2017.
In some cases, the works of authors who merely have the word "Gay" in their name (Gay Talese, Peter Gay) or works about things also contain the name (Enola Gay) have been destroyed because of a perceived pro-homosexual bias.
In the United States, attitudes about people who are homosexual may vary on the basis of partisan identification. Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to have negative attitudes about people who are gay and lesbian, according to surveys conducted by the National Election Studies
from 2000 through 2004. This disparity is shown in the graph on the
right, which is from a book published in 2008 by Joseph Fried. The
tendency of Republicans to view gay and lesbian people negatively could
be based on homophobia, religious beliefs, or conservatism with respect to the traditional family.
Homophobia also varies by region; statistics show that the Southern United States has more reports of anti-gay prejudice than any other region in the US.
In a 1998 address, author, activist, and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King
stated that "Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other
forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people,
to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood." One study of white adolescent males conducted at the University of Cincinnati by Janet Baker has been used to argue that negative feelings towards gay people are also associated with other discriminatory behaviors. According to the study, hatred of gay people, antisemitism, and racism are "likely companions". Baker hypothesized "maybe it's a matter of power and looking down on all you think are at the bottom." A study performed in 2007 in the UK for the charity Stonewall reports that up to 90 percent of the population support anti-discrimination laws protecting gay and lesbian people.
Economic cost
There are at least two studies which indicate that homophobia may
have a negative economic impact for the countries where it is
widespread. In these countries there is a flight of their LGBT populations —with the consequent loss of talent—, as well as an avoidance of LGBT tourism, that leaves the pink money in LGBT-friendlier countries. As an example, LGBT tourists contribute 6,800 million dollars every year to the Spanish economy.
As soon as 2005, an editorial from the New York Times related the politics of don't ask, don't tell in the US Army with the lack of translators from Arabic,
and with the delay in the translation of Arabic documents, calculated
to be about 120,000 hours at the time. Since 1998, with the introduction
of the new policy, about 20 Arabic translators had been expelled from
the Army, specifically during the years the US was involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
M. V. Lee Badgett, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, presented in March 2014 in a meeting of the World Bank the results of a study about the economical impact of homophobia in India. Only in health expenses, caused by depression, suicide, and HIV
treatment, India would have spent additional 23,100 million dollars due
to homophobia. On top, there would be costs caused by violence,
workplace loss, rejection of the family, and bullying at school, that
would result in a lower education level, lower productivity, lower
wages, worse health, and a lower life expectancy among the LGBT
population. In total, she estimated for 2014 in India a loss of up to 30,800 million dollars, or 1.7 % of the Indian GDP.
The LGBT activist Adebisi Alimi, in a preliminary estimation, has calculated that the economic loss due to homophobia in Nigeria
is about 1% of its GDP. Taking into account that in 2015 homosexuality
is still illegal in 36 of the 54 African countries, the money loss due
to homophobia in the continent could amount to hundreds of millions of
dollars every year.
Another study regarding socioecological measurement of homophobia
and its public health impact for 158 countries was conducted in 2018.
It found that the prejudice against gay people has a worldwide economic
cost of $119.1 billion. Economical loss in Asia was 88.29 billion
dollars due to homophobia, and in Latin America & the Caribbean it
was 8.04 billion dollars. Economical cost in East Asia and Middle Asia
was 10.85 billion dollars. Economical cost in Middle East and North
Africa was 16.92 billion dollars. The researcher suggested that a 1%
decrease in the level of homophobia is associated with a 10% increase in
the gross domestic product per capita.
A newer study from March 2018 done by The Williams Institute (UCLA
School of Law) concludes that there is a positive correlation between
LGBT inclusion and GDP per capita. According to this study, the legal
rights of LGBT people have a bigger influence than the degree of
acceptance in the society, but both effects reinforce each other. A one-point increase in their LGBT Global Acceptance Index (GAI) showed an increase of $1,506 in GDP per capita; and one additional legal right was correlated with an increase of $1,694 in GDP per capita.
Efforts to combat homophobia
Most international human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, condemn laws that make homosexual relations between consenting adults a crime. Since 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has also ruled that such laws violated the right to privacy guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2008, the Roman Catholic Church
issued a statement which "urges States to do away with criminal
penalties against [homosexual persons]." The statement, however, was
addressed to reject a resolution by the UN Assembly that would have
precisely called for an end of penalties against homosexuals in the
world.
In March 2010, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe
adopted a recommendation on measures to combat discrimination on grounds
of sexual orientation or gender identity, described by CoE Secretary
General as the first legal instrument in the world dealing specifically
with one of the most long-lasting and difficult forms of discrimination
to combat.
To combat homophobia, the LGBT community uses events such as gay pride parades and political activism. In August 2019, the Pride in London
community took a different initiative to “show solidarity with the
LGBT+ community” and colored the crossings in rainbow colors for the
annual parades. The first permanent crossings have been put on roads in Lambeth. Others were painted in Royal Borough of Greenwich.
One form of organized resistance to homophobia is the International Day Against Homophobia (or IDAHO), first celebrated May 17, 2005, in related activities in more than 40 countries.
The four largest countries of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico
and Colombia) developed mass media campaigns against homophobia since
2002.
In addition to public expression, legislation has been designed, controversially, to oppose homophobia, as in hate speech, hate crime,
and laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Successful preventative strategies against homophobic prejudice and
bullying in schools have included teaching pupils about historical
figures who were gay, or who suffered discrimination because of their
sexuality.
Some argue that anti-LGBT prejudice is immoral and goes above and
beyond the effects on that class of people. Warren J. Blumenfeld argues
that this emotion gains a dimension beyond itself, as a tool for
extreme right-wing conservatives and fundamentalist religious groups and
as a restricting factor on gender-relations as to the weight associated
with performing each role accordingly. Furthermore, Blumenfeld in particular stated:
"Anti-gay bias causes young people
to engage in sexual behavior earlier in order to prove that they are
straight. Anti-gay bias contributed significantly to the spread of the
AIDS epidemic. Anti-gay bias prevents the ability of schools to create
effective honest sexual education programs that would save children's
lives and prevent STDs (sexually transmitted diseases)."
Drawing upon research by Arizona State University Professor Elizabeth Segal, University of Memphis professors Robin Lennon-Dearing and Elena Delavega argued in a 2016 article published in the Journal of Homosexuality
that homophobia could be reduced through exposure (learning about LGBT
experiences), explanation (understanding the different challenges faced
by LGBT people), and experience (putting themselves in situations
experienced by LGBT people by working alongside LGBT co-workers or
volunteering at an LGBT community center).
Criticism of meaning and purpose
Distinctions and proposed alternatives
Researchers have proposed alternative terms to describe prejudice and discrimination against LGBT people. Some of these alternatives show more semantic transparency while others do not include -phobia:
- Homoerotophobia, being a possible precursor term to homophobia, was coined by Wainwright Churchill and documented in Homosexual Behavior Among Males in 1967.
- The etymology of homophobia citing the union of homos and phobos is the basis for LGBT historian Boswell's criticism of the term and for his suggestion in 1980 of the alternative homosexophobia.
- Homonegativity is based on the term homonegativism used by Hudson and Ricketts in a 1980 paper; they coined the term for their research in order to avoid homophobia, which they regarded as being unscientific in its presumption of motivation.
- Heterosexism
refers to a system of negative attitudes, bias, and discrimination in
favour of opposite-sex sexual orientation and relationships. It can include the presumption that everyone is heterosexual or that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the only norm and therefore superior.
- Sexual prejudice – Researcher at the University of California, Davis Gregory M. Herek preferred sexual prejudice
as being descriptive, free of presumptions about motivations, and
lacking value judgments as to the irrationality or immorality of those
so labeled. He compared homophobia, heterosexism, and sexual prejudice, and, in preferring the third term, noted that homophobia
was "probably more widely used and more often criticized." He also
observed that "Its critics note that homophobia implicitly suggests that
antigay attitudes are best understood as an irrational fear and that
they represent a form of individual psychopathology rather than a socially reinforced prejudice."
Opposition to the term homophobia
People and groups have objected to the use of the term homophobia.
Non-neutral phrasing
Use of homophobia, homophobic, and homophobe has been criticized as pejorative against LGBT rights opponents. Behavioral scientists William O'Donohue and Christine Caselles stated in 1993 that "as [homophobia]
is usually used, [it] makes an illegitimately pejorative evaluation of
certain open and debatable value positions, much like the former disease
construct of homosexuality" itself, arguing that the term may be used
as an ad hominem argument against those who advocate values or positions of which the user does not approve.
Philosopher Gary Colwell stated in 1999 that "the boundary of the term
'homophobia' is made so elastic that it can stretch around, not just
phobias, but every kind of rational fear as well; and not just around
every kind of fear, but also around every critical posture or idea that
anyone may have about the practice of homosexuality".
In 2012 the Associated Press Stylebook
was revised to advise against using non-clinical words with the suffix
-phobia, including homophobia, in "political and social contexts". AP
Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn said the word homophobia suggests a
severe mental disorder, and that it could be substituted with
"anti-gay" or similar phrasing. The AP's decision was criticized in some media outlets, especially those in the LGBT area, who argued that homophobia did not necessarily have to be interpreted in a strict clinical sense.
Heterophobia
The term heterophobia is sometimes used to describe reverse discrimination or negative attitudes towards heterosexual people and opposite-sex relationships based on their sexual orientation. The scientific use of heterophobia in sexology is restricted to few researchers, notably those who question Alfred Kinsey's sex research. To date, the existence or extent of heterophobia is mostly unrecognized by sexologists.
Beyond sexology there is no consensus as to the meaning of the term
because it is also used to mean "fear of the opposite" such as in Pierre-André Taguieff's The Force of Prejudice: On Racism and Its Doubles (2001).
Referring to the debate on both meaning and use, SUNY lecturer Raymond J. Noonan, in his 1999 presentation to The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) and the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) Conference, states:
The term heterophobia is confusing for some people for several reasons.
On the one hand, some look at it as just another of the many me-too
social constructions that have arisen in the pseudoscience of
victimology in recent decades. (Many of us recall John Money’s 1995
criticism of the ascendancy of victimology and its negative impact on
sexual science.) Others look at the parallelism between heterophobia and
homophobia, and suggest that the former trivializes the latter... For
others, it is merely a curiosity or parallel-construction word game. But
for others still, it is part of both the recognition and politicization
of heterosexuals' cultural interests in contrast to those of
gays—particularly where those interests are perceived to clash.
Stephen M. White and Louis R. Franzini introduced the related term heteronegativism
to refer to the considerable range of negative feelings that some gay
individuals may hold and express toward heterosexuals. This term is
preferred to heterophobia because it does not imply extreme or irrational fear.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary of the English language defines heterophobia as "irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against heterosexual people."
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