Homophobia Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Homophobia refers to aversion, bias, or discriminatory actions, attitudes, or beliefs directed toward individuals who either have or are perceived as having nonheterosexual identities such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people (GLBTQ).The term came into its contemporary usage in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it was used to describe what Kenneth Smith called “a fear of homosexuals” and the anxiety that one may be perceived by others as homosexual. Homophobic fear and anxiety are seen to be negative attributes, and in this regard, the term links to other social prejudices such as sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and classism. In this regard, GLBTQ groups have used the term to organize against discriminatory public policies and cultural attitudes. The term internalized homophobia relates to anxiety about or aversion to one’s own homosexuality or nonnormative sexuality. Internalized homophobia has been linked to low self-esteem and suicide in GLBTQ individuals.

Examples of homophobia include name-calling, harassment, social exclusion, job and housing discrimination, criminalization of homosexual sexual practices, and violence. The criminalization of homosexual sexual practices can be seen as state-sponsored homophobia. According to the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), those arrested for offenses related to same-sex sexual practice are subject to the death penalty in 5 countries and to imprisonment in 72 countries. The 1998 torture and murder of Matthew Shepard in the United States brought national and international attention to the problem of homophobic violence. A bill known as the Matthew Shepard Act passed the U.S. Senate in July 2009, and is expected to pass into law. This act expands the 1969 U.S. hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2007 Hate Crime Statistics, 16.6 percent of the hate crimes documented in 2007 were motivated by bias against a victim’s perceived or actual sexual orientation.

Closely related terms to homophobia are heteronormativity and heterosexism. Heteronormativity refers to the assumption that heterosexuality is and should be the norm. Heterosexism (also sometimes called compulsory heterosexuality) refers to the array of attitudes, actions, and institutions that structure heterosexuality as the norm. The issue of same-sex marriage illustrates some of the differences between the terms.

The institution of marriage, to the extent that it privileges and attaches benefits to certain kinds of relationships such as marriage between opposite-sex couples, is a heterosexist one. Next, prohibiting gays and lesbians from marrying each other could be considered homophobic. Finally, the assumption that opposite-sex marriage is “natural,” along with the pervasiveness of opposite-sex-only marriage within society, are reflections of its heteronormativity.

Feminist theorists have explored ways that homophobia closely links to sexism. Suzanne Pharr, for example, calls homophobia “a weapon of sexism” in that it is one important way, along with violence and economics, that rigid gender roles are imposed and enforced. According to Pharr, heterosexism and homophobia work together to uphold male dominance by both vilifying and making relational intimacy choices, other than the heterosexual nuclear family, institutionally difficult.

In addition to working to designate homophobic violence as a hate crime, GLBTQ groups around the world have pursued several strategies to organize against homophobia. These have included efforts to decriminalize homosexual acts and to mobilize the state in working against homophobia. These efforts have met with some success: in 2009, for example, the Supreme Court of India decriminalized homosexual acts and in 2006, the European Union passed a resolution against homophobia.

In 2005, May 17 was designated as the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, and since then, the date has been recognized in over forty countries with demonstrations, rallies, educational events, and other actions aiming to raise awareness about the problem of homophobia. The date itself commemorates the day that the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1990. Organizers distinguish the International Day Against Homophobia from another event, the annual LGBTQ Pride Day, by explaining that while Pride Day “emphasizes that Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transsexuals are proud of their identity and refuse to be shamed,” the international recognition against homophobia on May 17 “highlights that in reality it is homophobia that is shameful and must be deconstructed in its social logic and fought against openly.”

Bibliography:

Cohen, Cathy J. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens:The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” In Black Queer Studies, edited by E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hate Crime Statistics. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2007. www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2007/ incidents.htm.
International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. “FAQs.” www.idahomophobia.org.
International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA). www.ilga.org.
Pharr, Suzanne. Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism. Inverness, Calif.: Chardon Press, 1997.
Rich, Adrienne. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5 (1980): 631–660.
Smith, Kenneth. “Homophobia: A Tentative Personality Profile.” Psychological Report 29 (1971).
Warner, Michael. “Introduction: Fear of a Queer Planet.” Social Text 29, no. 4 (1991): 3–17.

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