Homophobic Perspectives

Learning about the LGBTQ population was an interesting experience for me. I have many family members as well as friends who identify as homosexual. Understanding the difficulties associated with being a homosexual are always so astounding to me. I realized during last week’s class, that, it must truly be difficult to be a minority and then on top of that be an out casted homosexual. I began to truly feel that there were so many disparities in this world and that if you do not fit in to a box within society, you are somehow not worthy. Many LGBTQ people are homeless, without support, and depressed. It is quite sad.

In the article, How Homophobia Hurts Everyone by Warren J. Blumenfeld, Blumenfeld describes his experience growing up as a homosexual, and how homophobia affected him, as well as his family and peers. To begin, homophobia can be separated into two different catergories, personal homophobia and interpersonal homophobia. Personal homophobia can be described as a personal belief system, or prejudice that homosexuals, bisexual and transgender people are entitled to, should be disliked or remain powerless, due to their desires. They are also sometimes seen as psychologically disturbed, genetically modified or defective and overall, unfortunate human beings. While on the other hand, interpersonal homophobia refers to the personal prejudice or bias that affects relationships within individuals. An example of interpersonal homophobia could be making a joke, name calling, or insulting certain individuals or groups. This can be either verbal, physical or intimidation related.

Before we can address the issue of homophobia. We must distinguish what exactly homophobia is, Homophobia is a term to describe hate towards homosexually oriented people. Homophobia is a form of stigma based on sexual ideas. This is also explained in the book “The Challenges of being a gay rural gay man, coping with stigma”. It states “sexual stigma is defined as social disapproval of any-non-heterosexual behavior”. Stigma that is based on hate towards people that are different, or people we don’t understand.

There are a lot of things that are wrong in our world today. From crime running wild on the streets to there being homelessness wherever we turn. There are things that we can fix, but there are others that just cannot be. We are humans after all; we all have our flaws, we all have our secrets, we have our weaknesses. There are just some things that can never be fixed. Hatred and unrationalizable actions being a few of these things. Every once in a while there is a major crime that sweeps the nation. The reasons for this can vary from mass shootings, police shootouts, the pure shock or the crime or many other reasons. One of these crimes that swept the nation was the horrible act committed against Matthew Shepard.

Homophobia present in the black community has decreased over the years. Black culture is becoming more tolerant and accepting of the LGBTQA community. Churches are becoming more tolerant towards the LGBTQA community. A few decades ago, homosexuality could not be talked about in public without being shamed, however many Black celebrities are making their sexuality public, inspiring the change of mentality in the younger generations. Some of these artist include Frank Ocean, Azealia Banks, and Jason Collins. Also, the portrayal of LGBTQA persons of color in the media is becoming less stereotypical, they were portrayed as flamboyant gossipy men with feminine tendencies, however now they are represented as people that you can identify with. For

Through the intersectionality theory and social learning theory, one can see how and why the generalizations of Muslims and homosexuals have impact my life and how they are perpetuated in today’s society. Being a black, Muslim, lesbian woman in this country represent one of the minorities that is being affected by the negative stereotypes. These stereotypes are observed behavior that is being adopted by many places or individuals, who believes they know the perceptions of those other individuals that are different from

The battle against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Defiance Syndrome (AIDS) has been devastating, underestimated, and complex. In America, this difficulty surrounding HIV/AIDS is due to the inability of the state to properly educate and protect its citizens from being exposed to this illness. Since the first detection of HIV and AIDS the government aided in the miseducation, stereotypes, and deaths of its citizens by not taking the proper protocols to protect its people. Originally, United States’ government allowed its citizens to believe that HIV and AIDS were strictly related to homosexual relationships. As a result of this misguidance, homophobia increased nationally; thus, shunning the gay community and making it

Australia is a rapidly evolving country branching off from the British monarchy. In this day and age, it seems almost petty to have the need to argue and fight for or against such obviously necessary things such as marriage and adoption rights for LGBT+ persons. In 1994, the Commonwealth passed the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994 - Section 4, decriminalising private sexual activity between same-sex, consenting males. Since then, there have been no major political advances for gay rights in Australia, especially after the rein of the Howard government, which made it more difficult for same-sex attracted and transgender people to associate with the country.

Nussbaum also believes that the stereotypical portrayal of homosexuals and the homophobia towards homosexuals is created by a disgust and that disgust is is what makes minority groups look inferior to majority groups. Nussbaum believes that “projective disgust plays no proper role in arguing for legal regulation, because of the emotion’s irrationality and its connection to stigma and hierarchy…Disgust, however, often prevents us from looking for those good reasons, creating the misleading impression that the policy has already been well defended. Turning it to legitimize polices” (Nussbaum, 20). Due to the “politics of disgust,” Nussbaum believes that homosexual couples should be given suspect classification unlike the Lawrence v. Texas

I ask myself, did it really get better? In many ways, yes. But when I read things like 'masc only' or 'no fems' I can't help but wonder why? I don't blame the individuals for having their own preference. 'Gay bros' are now becoming more predominant and

Homophobia is a historic institution that has impacted the experience of many educators over the years. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans* (hereinafter referred to as queer and trans*) educators, administrators, students, and staff have always been a part of shaping America's schools; however, they have often learned creative strategies for remaining in the closet in order to protect themselves from “ostracism, parental outrage, punishment, and even dismissal” (Blount, 2005, p. 1). Riling against social shifts of (non-)acceptance, there have been documented cases dating back to the mid-1800s where educators have written letters to same-gender partners expressing their sexual and emotional desires. Blount (2005) specifically mentions that Addie

Granting great progress has been made for the rights of our Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) community since the 1970’s, there is still a presence of personal and institutionalized homophobia in rural settings such as Kentucky. Evidence of such homophobia was displayed in some of the public school districts, where harassment of actual and perceived gay students is rampant, and school policies fall short of protecting the students’ rights, and in most recent events where Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis refused to issue marriage license to gay couples.

Transphobia is fear, discrimination or hatred against transgender people specifically or people of non-binary gender more generally. Transphobia is often closely connected with homophobia and is justified for the same reasons that homophobes use to justify their hatred of gays. (religion, prescriptive gender norms, etc.). Indeed, many clueless homophobes conflate homosexual people with transgender people and cross-dressers. Transphobia also manifests itself in some schools of radical feminist thought, as some feminists resent the idea that people who aren't "really" women might make claims as women. On a societal scale, it can manifest itself in any number of ways, from systemic discrimination against transgender people in housing, healthcare,

I could not agree with you more on the issue of homophobia against same-sex couples. The treatment spans from bullying in schools, random attacks, to verbal and physical abuse against this population. As a result of peoples intolerances against the LGBT community we are starting to schools catering to this population. Harvey Milk High School in East Village, New York City is designed for ( not limited) to LGBTQ high school students. I think in years to come, we will begin to see more schools targeting this community. Although it is an unsettling thought that is has come to this point, I can appreciate the fact that the teenagers have a place where they can learn, enjoy, be themselves and feel safe. It just amazes me the level of hate, discrimination,

The three modes of inquiry each serve to investigate an issue from a different perspective. One way to explore a particular issue is to examine it in each of these facets of thought. This allows a more complex view than simply focusing on a single mode would. Analysis through all three modes will serve as a means to thoroughly examine the influence of homophobic stigma on interpersonal and LBGT relationships.