Homophobia

Homophobia

Homophobia is a commonly used term in today’s world. Introduced in 1972 by psychologist George Weinberg in his book Society and the Healthy Homosexual, the term generally means fear or phobia of homosexuals. The idea of homophobia refers to the intolerance of homosexuals in society. Its importance has given place for organizations, scientists, experiments, and general awareness of the state of mind that in most people’s opinion in the recent past, is a problem. In psychology there is not an actual clinical term for homophobia other than the commonly used name; however, there were also ideas to classify sexism, homophobia and racism as an intolerant personality disorder. The term is condescending, discriminating, and sometimes it can lead to physical violence. Homophobia not only affects everyday life, it also affects employment, school performance, relationships, families, and the most burdened, homosexual people that sometimes are defenseless due to lack of support.

Hopeless and afraid can characterize my childhood and sometimes part of my days today. I, my best friend and many other known individuals are experiencing these feelings because of homophobia. A crime towards us for a fact that we did not ask for or were given the choice to be a part of. I’m not saying I regret my truth, but I do regret society’s ignorance and their unwillingness to be better and understand that all of us are the same. A survey of 191 employers said that 19% of them would fire, 27% would not hire and 26% would refuse to promote a homosexual in 1994. Imagine how students that have homosexual feelings feel towards these statistics. Obvious the fact that 28% of students that consider themselves homosexual or lesbian drop out of school, add up the everyday struggles of addictions, rejection, and gangs that the other kids are put to deal with everyday. Today, the second biggest cause of hate crimes is homophobia, according to the FBI.

Through time, homophobia has been decreasing in terms of the population that supports it. As people and education becomes more accessible, society learns to that everyone has the opportunity to demonstrate if they should be liked, hated, or loved based NOT on their sexual orientation, but on their personality.

Homosexuals have been around forever, but homophobia began to increase in the early 1980s due to the rise of HIV/AIDS plague. When the disease came along, society started blaming gay men for the spread and uncontrolled multiplication of the epidemic. In United Kingdom, 92% of young gay teens have been verbally abused and 41% have been physically assaulted. In 2005 two gay men were murdered in Latin America. In Brazil the government launched a campaign to eliminate homophobia and between 1997 to 2007, 2,509 gay men were murdered. In many African countries, the persecution of homosexuals is encouraged and legalized by the government. In Iran, the government kills gays, and in India, homosexuals are stigmatized and killed.

Homophobia affects everyone. If a family has a homosexual child, they might be intellectual enough to accept the truth and be supportive, but there are the schools who discriminate, the teachers who don’t understand, the companies that won’t hire, the friends will be homophobic and the rest of the society will give looks that go so deep in the mind that torture and sometimes guide homosexuals to disapprove of themselves and even punish themselves.

Internalized Homophobia refers to the high disapproval of one’s own homosexual feelings and towards others. It leads to a condition called cognitive dissonance, where the person cannot seem to reconcile and understand those feeling that society, religion and friend’s expectations have imposed on them as wrong.