Homophobia

While reading Pharr’s piece on homophobia I became intrigued by the deep connection she makes between sexism and homophobia; I agree that without the existence of sexism, there would be no homophobia. Sexism allows for the devaluation of a person based on their sex and homophobia is merely a branch from sexism. Homophobia allows the hatred and mistreatment of those who do not fit the social norm of being heterosexual and instead are gay or lesbian. Society has found a way to judge and threaten gays through homophobia. I feel that homophobia is a form of oppressing those whose sexual orientation is different or those who act against the gendered norm of what a man or woman should be.

Gays have been viewed as a threat to male dominance and lesbians have been viewed as a threat to woman’s submissiveness; homophobia has collectively ostracized homosexuals in the most negative manner. This is not only an issue between adults, but I feel that it causes great conflict between teens. Like Pharr mentions, puberty is a deciding time in the lives of young kids and it is also when they long to feel accepted. I have learned of kids who have committed suicide because of rude homophobic actions by peers in school and it is not fair that they are not accepted simply because of social constructions that dictate heterosexuality. During my senior year of high school, forwarded homophobic text messages about a student were being circulated and it wasn’t until that instance that I realized how big of a problem homophobia really was.

Homophobia has associated negative characteristics with being a lesbian or being gay that it has become an insult everyone would want to avoid; it is no longer an identity to be gay or lesbian, instead these words have been socially constructed into cruel insults.