Homophobia

Homophobia is most commonly defined as an irrational hatred and fear of nonheterosexuals, or sexual minority groups, and specifically lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals. The term homophobia was first used among American psychologists in the late 1960s and early 1970s to describe a fear held by heterosexuals that others might perceive them to be homosexual. Although psychologists were the first to use the term, it is not listed as a bona fide phobia in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is therefore more of a cultural rather than clinical term. As an illustration of this cultural usage, in his foreword to Sex, Love, Homophobia: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans-gender Lives by Vanessa Baird, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu refers to homophobia as a “crime against humanity” and “every bit as just” as apartheid.

Members of religious groups who oppose homosexual behavior on moral grounds have objected to the term homophobia because it suggests their opposition is fear based rather than legitimately tied to sacred religious texts and grounded in what many religious people regard to be a socially accepted prejudice. Despite objections to the term homophobia and its questionable semantic accuracy, its early use in the 1970s cemented it as the most common way to describe prejudice and discrimination directed toward LGBTQ people.

In institutions of higher learning, homophobia is often studied in conjunction with other forms of discrimination, such as racism, sexism, and classism. Antihomophobia education and activism address the myriad forms of homophobia, including institutionalized homophobia and interpersonal homophobia. Attempts to reduce homophobia [Page 1094]in public schools are expressed as antidiscrimination provisions in various levels of state legislation and also through popular movements, but these are invariably met with counterresistance campaigns from certain religious groups.