Psychology of Homophobia

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.

2. In the essay “Gender Treachery: Homophobia, Masculinity, and Threatened Identities” the terms ‘homophobia’ and ‘heterosexism’ are discussed. Hopkins contends that there is no distinct boundary between the two terms, but he outlines ways in which to distinguish the two terms. First,

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.

A pattern emerges where the scholarly literature exploring this topic is largely focused on males. Reason being is that it appears that males are the sex who are predominantly homosexual in their orientation (LeVay & Baldwin, 2012). However, the sensitivity within the discourse of sexual orientation arises when it is debated upon whether one 's sexual preference is innate at birth, hence a force of nature or biology, or if it is a result of culture, nurture or environmental factors (Emmanuele et al., 2010). Furthermore, an experimental design will be proposed to further examine this topic. Comparing the three chosen studies, it is evident that a biological and endocrinological perspective does account for sexual orientation (Kraemer et al., 2006; Manning et al., 2007; Miller et al., 2008). Of the studies that currently exist on this topic, data shows that prenatal testosterone levels are indicative of sexual orientation (Kraemer et al., 2006; Manning et al., 2007; Miller et al., 2008). This paper addresses a topic that is relevant in today 's society; a topic that has, for the most part, been written off as having any scientific roots (Emmanuele et al., 2010). This paper counters that belief and in reading this essay, it will be evident that biology and endocrinology have a much stronger influence on sexual orientation than previously thought.

In 1996, Henry Adams, a psychologist at the University of Georgia, devised a way to see if gay bashing was related to suppressed homosexual urges. He recruited a group of men between the ages of 18 and 31, categorizing them as either homophobic or non-homophobic. They were then shown explicit erotic videos depicting straight, gay and lesbian sex, during which penile circumference was measured by a plethysmograph. As a result of the video depicting gay sex, eighty percent of the homophobic participants showed "moderate to definite tumescense" as compared to thirty percent of the non-homophobic subjects (Stryker 5). Professor Adams concluded that most homophobes "demonstrate significant arousal to homosexual erotic stimuli," suggesting that homophobia is a form of "latent homosexuality where persons are either unaware or deny their homosexual urges" (Adams 441; "Antigay" 1). The homosexual panic defense is based on the theory that homophobic men may actually have repressed homosexual urges. Homophobia is often indicative of self-loathing homosexual feelings; many homophobes subconsciously use anti-gay attitudes as a disguise for their own homosexuality. Dr. Patrick Suraci, the author of Male Sexual Armor, suggests that a gay basher wrestling with homosexual impulses of his own, "instead of being able to accept those homosexual feelings within himself, he wants to kill those feelings"

Homophobia includes discrimination or abuse, which is based on someone’s homosexuality or sexual orientation. This can negatively impact the emotional and physical wellbeing of people who are victimised. There are three main types of homophobia that are known as the three I’s, which are internalised, interpersonal and institutional. Internalised homophobia is the fear or hatred of homosexuality that exists in ones own mind, such as making a determined effort to dress or

Kimmel’s definition of homophobia is this, “Homophobia is the fear that other men will unmask us, emasculate us, reveal to us and the world that we do not measure up, that we are not real men.” (pp. 47) When someone says homophobia in context today, them assume they are talking about the fear of same-sex interactions and relationships. This can be related to Kimmel’s definition due to the fact that straight men may fear gay men in the way that they have changed what

LeVay, S. and Hamer, D., 1994. Evidence for a Biological Influence in Male Homosexuality. Scientific American, [e-journal] Available through: Research Gate website [Accessed 17 March 2016].

2. What is homophobia? - The term homophobia translates to fear of homosexuality. This fear can manifest in many forms; it can include violence, harassment, exclusion, or discomfort.

Lyons, A., Pitts, M., & Grierson, J. (2014). Sense of coherence as a protective factor for psychological distress among gay men: a prospective cohort study. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 27(6), 662-677.

3). Lastly, they criticize the fact LeVay could not guarantee the sexuality of his subjects (Dallas, para. 3). However, this discrepancy probably explains why 17 percent of the group contradicted the study (three heterosexual males had smaller INAH3 while three homosexual males had larger INAH3). In spite of these denigrations, it is clear that homosexuality possibly has a biologic substrate.

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, homophobia is the irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Much like a witch hunt, homophobia targets and seeks out individuals, gay or straight, and persecutes them based on ignorance, and further more if one cannot provide solid proof of his or her innocence. (Hughes) It is the fuel behind many hate crimes and discrimination. Some claim that homosexuality is a disease. If this statement is true, couldn’t we all simply begin to call in “queer” to work and school when we won’t be present? (Avert)

There are, however, numerous problems with this study. In comparing the size of the INAH-3, he presumed that the 16 "heterosexual" men were, in fact, heterosexual. Only two of them had denied homosexual activities; for the rest, sexual histories were not available. This means that he was comparing homosexuals with an unknown sexual orientation which makes it a limitation to the study. Another limitation was the size or volume of the INAH-3. Levay measured the volume while other researchers preferred the neuron numbers. The public cares because they question what causes

It continues to amaze me that even in the 21st century the church continues to be major focus in the discrimination homophobia. The church seems not to learn from our history. During the years and post years of the slavery of African Americans, the mistreatment, abuse and murder of black people was supported by the Bible and even condoned as acceptable behaviors. But as we now know, that neither God nor the Bible supports hatred or mistreatment of another human being as we are all children of Christ and we are to love one another and treat each other as we ourselves want to be treated.

Homosexuality has existed as long as humanity itself, and with homosexuality always seems homophobia, or the completely extreme and irrational fear or aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people, is sure to exist. This prejudice against homosexuals has been in one way or another