What is homophobia? Can it be cured? [View All]

http://www.endhomophobia.org/homophobia.htm">Education


"Homophobia: The fear of feelings of love for members of one’s own sex and therefore the hatred of those feelings in others… the belief in the inherent superiority of one pattern of loving and thereby its right to dominance." - Audre Lourde

4 types

Personal homophobia is prejudice based on a personal belief that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are sinful, immoral, sick, inferior to heterosexuals, or incomplete women and men.

Interpersonal homophobia is individual behavior based on personal homophobia. This hatred or dislike may be expressed by name-calling, telling "jokes”, verbal and physical harassment, and other individual acts of discrimination.

Institutional homophobia refers to the many ways in which government, businesses, churches, and other institutions and organizations discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation. Institutional homophobia is also called heterosexism.

Cultural homophobia refers to social standards and norms which dictate that being heterosexual is better or more moral than being lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and that everyone is or should be heterosexual. Cultural homophobia is also called heterosexism.

http://www.endhomophobia.org/homophobia.htm">Cure?

Identify homophobia, not homosexuality, as the problem to be addressed. In conversations with friends and colleagues, speak out about homophobia. For many people, the only time that they talk about lesbian, gay, and bisexual people is in the context of homophobic 'jokes.'

Think about the similarities and differences between homophobia and other forms of oppression. Use what you know about racism, sexism, classism, etc., to better understand homophobia and to look for ways to respond to homophobia.

Listen to the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and assume that their experience with oppression Is valid. Similarly, assume that the ways in which lesbian, gay, and bisexual people experience the world are different from the ways in which heterosexuals experience the world.