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What is Homophobia"
The suffix "phobia" is derived from the Greek word "phobos". In English, it means either fear or loathing. "Homophobia" has a variety of meanings, including:
"hatred of homosexuality"
"hatred of homosexuals"
"fear of gays and lesbians"
"a desire or attempt to discriminate against homosexuals"
The fourth option appears to be the dominant meaning among the general population. It places "homophobia" in the same class as "racism" where hatred, fear and discrimination are directed against persons of different races, and "sexism" where the victims are of a specific gender.
For many homophobes (persons who exhibit homophobia) these multiple meanings are not troublesome. An individual who hates homosexuality may well hate homosexuals as well, and probably discriminates against them. Their hatred is typically based on fear. However, many conservative religious folk are distressed when the term is used to define their beliefs and actions. Some state that they (and their God) hate homosexuality but love the homosexual. They do not wish to be lumped with racists and sexists. Others are selective in their discriminatory goals. They might be in favor of equal civil rights for gays and lesbians in employment and accommodation, while opposing equal rights in marriage or adoption. Again, they do not regard themselves as homophobes, even though they work towards the maintenance of special rights for heterosexuals.
This type of concern mirrors a situation decades ago when some people did not consider themselves to be racists even though they opposed inter-racial marriage. They maintained that they had no hatred against persons of any race; they just wanted to prevent them from marrying outside of their race. Similarly, many people do not consider themselves to be sexist, even though they wish to prohibit women from being ordained as clergy or from sharing power equally with their spouses. They believe that they have no hatred of women; they just want them to be excluded from certain roles. They often feel justified in their beliefs by quoting selected passages on the Bible.
Homophobia's Cost to the Youth of North America
The Standing Commission on Human Affairs of the Episcopal Church wrote in 1994 (2):
"Not only must lesbian and gay youth withstand ridicule and, often, violence from their peers, they risk outright rejection from their parents should they decide to 'come out.' The combination of the culture's condemnation of homosexuality and the alienation from one's home and parents (supposedly a haven of security and support) causes unusually high rate of attempted suicide.
According to a US Health and Human Services report (3):
"gay adolescents were two to three times more likely than peers to attempt suicide, accounting for as many as 30% of completed youth suicides each year...26% percent of gay youth are forced to leave home because of conflicts with their families over their sexual identities. Up to half engage in prostitution to support themselves, greatly increasing their risk for HIV infection."
We have determined that homophobia, largely maintained by conservative and mainline Christian churches, is responsible for the current deaths of young gays and lesbians in the United States at a rate greater than the church exterminated "witches" during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.
A recent University of Calgary study has shown that gay men are much fore likely to attempt suicide than others in society. We are attempting to obtain this report.
The National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYouthAC@aol.com) has referred to two reports on homeless youth:
In 1988, the Los Angeles County Task Force on Runaway and Homeless Youth, issued a "Report and Recommendations of the Task Force" which estimated that 25 to 35% of street youth in that county are gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Also in 1988, Seattle Commission on Children and Youth of Seattle, WA issued their "Report on Gay and Lesbian Youth in Seattle" which estimated that 40% of Seattle street youth are gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
The National Youth Advocacy Coalition agreed that these figures agree with their experience.
What Fuels Homophobia?
The root meaning of the word homophobia is: fear of homosexuality. Its meaning has evolved over time; it is now usually defined as fear, loathing and hatred of homosexuals and/or homosexuality. Some reasons are:
inability or unwillingness to change the hatred taught during childhood.
fear of people who are different.
promotion of homophobia by our religious group.
a heterosexual's natural feeling of repulsion at the thought of engaging in same-sex activity. Realizing that homosexual behavior is unnatural for them, some people generalize this feeling into the belief that homosexuality is wrong for everyone.
actual homosexual feelings that a person cannot acknowledge or handle.
low self esteem leading to a need to hate other group(s).
There are several possible explanations. One is that homophobia is an attempt to repress or deny one's own homosexual impulses. Another is that homosexual stimuli cause anxiety in non-homophobic men, and anxiety enhances arousal and erection. Further research is needed to clarify the results and to answer questions such as whether these results would generalize to homophobic women and whether homophobic men have poorer heterosexual adjustment than do non-homophobic men.
Laws against Homosexual Behavior
In the United States, laws prohibiting sexual behavior are the responsibility of the individual states. The result is a patchwork quilt of laws across the country. Many states still have laws which ban specific sexual acts, whether consentually performed by same-sex couples or by heterosexual couples (married or not). Other states criminalize certain sexual acts between homosexuals, but allow the same activity among consenting heterosexual adults. Other states have laws that prohibit "crimes against nature", a phrase which is open to wide interpretation. Although the term "sodomy" is popularly defined as anal sex, the word is commonly interpreted by the courts as including both anal and oral sex. In some states, police utilize other laws against gays and lesbians; e.g. "solicitation for indecent purposes."
The Georgia anti-sodomy state law was appealed to the US Supreme Court. In 1986, the court upheld the law as constitutional. They decided that individuals have no fundamental federal constitutional right to "engage in sodomy." (Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186).
One Internet source (4) lists the status of anti-sodomy laws for various states as of 1995. The following states were believed to have had laws still on the books: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia. You can get life imprisonment in Michigan for repeat offenses. Many other states authorize jail sentences up to 10 or 20 years.
In 1961, Illinois was the first state to repeal anti-sodomy laws. Since that event, state legislatures have repealed their law, or a state court has declared it unconstitutional in: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
NOTE: The above data is believed to be reasonable accurate. However, it may contain errors. It is not intended as legal advice. Please consult a lawyer in your area who is familiar with your state's laws to be safe.
Recent legal activity includes:
Montana: They enacted an anti-sodomy law in 1973 which permitted a judge to assign a 10 year jail sentence and/or a maximum fine of $50,000. On 1996-FEB-20, District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock declared that state's law unconstitutional, because it conflicted with state constitutional guarantees of personal privacy. The Montana Supreme Court upheld the District Court decision in mid-1997. Nobody has ever been convicted under the law.
Tennessee: On 1996-JAN-26 The Tennessee Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the state's anti-gay sodomy law was unconstitutional. The court stated that "the right of the plaintiffs to engage in consentual, private, non-commercial sexual conduct" involved "intimate questions of personal and family concern." Thus, they could not be criminalized by the state. We are unaware whether the state has appealed this decision to their state's Supreme Court.
In Canada, laws controlling sexual behavior are the responsibility of the Federal government, and thus apply across the entire country. They permit sexual activities of all types between adults, although they currently have a higher age of consent for homosexual than for heterosexual consentual sex. It is doubtful whether this form of discrimination could withstand a constitutional challenge.
University Study of Homophobia
A study that appears to reveal a major cause of homophobia was completed at the University of Georgia in 1996. (1) It involved 64 white men, none of whom had engaged in homosexual acts during their lifetime. Their sexual fantasies involved only women. 35 of them were rated homophobic; 29 non-homophobic. For the purpose of this study, "homophobia" was defined as a negative emotional reaction (e.g., fear, anxiety, anger, discomfort) to homosexuality. It was measured by a questionnaire called the Index of Homophobia. Each was shown three types of X rated videotapes: heterosexual, lesbian and gay. A plethysmograph measuring device (affectionately called a "peter meter") measured the circumference of their penis as a gauge of sexual arousal.
The two groups exhibited similar arousal when they viewed 4 minute samples taken from one heterosexual and one lesbian movie. But they responded differently to the male homosexual clip:
Degree of Tumescence: Insignificant Moderate Definite
Homophobic men 20% 26% 54%
Non-homophobic men 66% 10% 24%
The researchers concluded that these data are consistent with the belief that homophobic men have repressed homosexual desires. An alternate, but much less likely, explanation is that the homophobic men's erections were caused by anxiety during the experiment.
Results of Public Opinion Polls
One has to be extremely careful when interpreting poll data. The public's response is seriously influenced by the exact wording of the question. Some data:
A TIME/CNN poll in 1994 showed that 52% of US adults found the homosexual lifestyle to be acceptable; this is an increase from 35% from 1978.
The National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago has been asking a fixed set of questions for 24 years. From 1973 to 1996, the percentage of Americans who think homosexuality is "wrong" declined from 73% to 61%.
An Angus-Reid poll in Canada showed that: 78% of skeptics, non-Christians and atheists
68% of Roman Catholics,
59% of United Church members (the largest Protestant denomination)
63% of Anglicans (Episcopalians) and
38% of what they termed "conservative" church members favor legal protection from discrimination for gays and lesbians.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) conducted a telephone survey of a random sampling of US adults. They found some rather conflicting results: 64% considered homosexual behavior "just plain wrong"
50% believe that "male homosexuals are disgusting"
45% believe that homosexuality "should not be condemned"
Two University of California at Davis researchers, Gregory Herek and Eric Glunt, found that the least homophobic persons: were politically liberal
were young
were highly educated
were female
knew a gay or lesbian person
Of these indicators, the last one is the most important. It would appear that the more that gays and lesbians come out of the closet, the sooner homophobia will disappear as a potent force in North America. This is not an easy thing to do; coming out frequently leads to gay-bashing, loss of job, loss of accommodation etc.
Arguments Used Against Homosexuals and Bisexuals
Some of the common arguments are:
Homosexuality is unnatural: There is an element of truth in this assertion. The more than 90% of adults who are heterosexual find sexual attraction to a member of the opposite sex to be natural; same-sex attraction for them is unnatural. However, for a homosexual, the reverse is true. Same-sex attraction is the most natural thing in the world for them; sexual activity with a member of the opposite sex is unnatural
Homosexuality is an attack on the family: This argument is often used to oppose recognition of same-sex relationships. There are certain situations in society which have been called "zero-sum". This is where one group loses whenever another group gains. An example is welfare payments: if allowances are increased, then the rest of the population who are not on welfare must have their taxes increased. One group can only benefit at the expense of the rest of the population. Recognition of homosexual relationships is not a "zero-sum" situation. If John and James get married and Jane and Mary get married, then this does not adversely affect Sue and Tom's marriage one iota. Recognition of same-sex relationships does not attack marriage and the family; it merely enlarges the meaning of the words "marriage" and "family" to make them more inclusive. In the past, there were laws which prohibited people of different races from marrying. With the repeal of these laws, "the family" was not adversely affected; it was enhanced.
The Bible condemns homosexuality: In reality, the Hebrew Scriptures appear to condemn homosexual rape, homosexual prostitution and temple prostitution, both homosexual and heterosexual. The Christian Scriptures criticize male sexual abuse of boys, and heterosexuals engaging in homosexual acts. None of the Biblical passages seem to apply to consentual activities within committed homosexual partnerships.
Homosexuals recruit young people: Adults who sexually molest children usually do not have a fully developed sexual attraction to other adults. Thus it is misleading to talk of them as homosexuals or heterosexuals. Where a child molester does have a developed attraction, then they are usually heterosexual.
Almost all heterosexuals do not abuse children; almost all homosexuals do not either.
The belief that homosexuals recruit young people is based on the mistaken notion that a person can be influenced to change their sexual orientation. Young people do not become homosexual or bisexual because they are seduced by an older person; one's sexual orientation may in some cases be determined at the instant of conception; in all cases, it appears to be fixed by the time they reach school age.
Beliefs About Sexual Orientation
Beliefs about sexual orientation: Essentially all of the groups opposing equal rights for gays and lesbians are either overtly conservative Christian associations, or organizations that are composed almost entirely of conservative Christians. One can often identify them by their names, which usually include the words "Christian" or "family." So, the fight for equal rights for gays and lesbians is not with heterosexuals; it is with conservative religion.
Unstated Reasons for Denying Equal Rights to Homosexuals and others
Fear of being marginalized: North America is evolving into a society which treats heterosexuals, gays, lesbians and bisexuals as four different, natural and valid sexual orientations. Gays are becoming a protected group of people, just like Afro-Americans, females, Muslims, Germans, Roman Catholics etc. People who remain anti-gay will begin to be considered bigots by the general population. In the words of one conservative Christian, "I don't want the federal government to marginalize me or the millions of others who share my beliefs."
The need to hate: Some people with low self-esteem appear to need to identify some minority that they can hate and feel superior to. Over the past 50 years, Afro-Americans, Communists and now gays and lesbians have fulfilled this role in sequence. If their religious faith supports bigotry against that minority, then they are given additional justification for their hatred. Many churches teach that one must love the homosexual while hating the homosexuality; this concept is usually lost on these people; they end up hating both the homosexual and the homosexuality. If you disagree with this statement, just look at the faces contorted with rage at any meeting or demonstration attended by those opposed for equal rights for homosexuals.
Story of a Fighter Against Homophobia
Rhea Murray is a member of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). She has given permission for the dissemination of this essay on the Internet. She writes about her efforts in support of GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transsexual) people in the US:
"To all those who have been in the trenches and feel the stress of burnout:
Burn-out is a problem that afflicts many dedicated people. I think the risk of burn-out is less likely when you are closer to the battle line. I have been asked to speak at many different large metropolitan areas in this last year. One thing I continuously encounter is shock at the horror stories that is daily life for GLBT people and their families in the Heartland of our country. I know that homophobia, hatred and fear abound in all communities. But for many small communities across the nation this is still 1950's...with the 1950's mindset.
I have done 15 speaking engagements this last year. I still have not conquered my fear of public speaking. Each engagement is a gut-wrenching war with my number one phobia. Sometimes I whoop the dragon; sometimes it whoops me. Rumors has it that my ex-minister is threatening to file a libel civil suit against me for telling my story.
My home has been broken into twice within the last six weeks. Nothing is ever taken. It is as though someone wants us to know that their menacing presence has been here. The police asked if we had any enemies. Now we are beginning to receive harassing phone calls with a mechanized voice. I am having personal crisis issues going on in my life. My response to all this...well, I plan to take a huge step in being more out in my community by approaching all the local newspapers about our chapter's presence in their community and to promote the hotline number for the national Family-to-Family hotline.
Why? This last year I have personally dealt with the following:
homeless, abandoned by family, teenage lesbians living in a storage shed in the dead of winter - one was pregnant;
Jimmy being denied access to his dying, beloved Jamie;
a desperate search for a teenage boy who was attempting suicide - luckily we reached him at the very moment he was taking an Xacto knife to his wrists;
a teenage boy who was forcefully committed to a mental hospital, when his parents discovered he was gay;
another boy who was made to crawl on his hands and knees and beg forgiveness, so his parents would allow him to continue to live with them - his parents have forced a life of total isolation on this fine, young man who was just beginning to bloom into his affirming self;
a seventeen year old sitting in my living room who just had the hospital bind his wounds from a recent gaybashing to have me help bind the more permanent wounds on his dignity;
a fifteen year old lesbian whose parents changed the locks on their home to deny their daughter even her personal belongings;
dealing with the realization that my Eddie who is dying of AIDS has to be driven over an hour to find a hospital who won't mistreat him; and lastly,
this weekend a gay youth in my son's support group decided life had become too unbearable and flung himself out of a speeding car.
Their faces, their eyes, their stories haunt me. They build a fire in my belly...a fire so intense that it threatens to consume me, if I do not take action. These are our children, our brothers, our sisters. They are bleeding. They are dying. And they are bleeding and dying in a world that does not give a damn about them. They need us. Oh, god, how they need us.
Please take the much deserved respite to ease the burden of burnout. But please do not forget their plight and those of us on the front lines who have no one to step in, if we have a need to step down. Our respites come in small victories that are few and far between. Rest, relax and then come back with renewed vigor to fight. For this indeed is a war...a war in which the only bodies that lie at our feet are those of our GLBT loved ones.
Forgive me. It is not I who speaks but the fire that burns within.
Love and peace,
Rhea Murray " |
