Is homophobia a psychological condition?

Homophobia means a fear of the same, so if it was used correctly, as a term, it would be a psychological condition. Ironically, it is used as a term to describe people who are strongly prejudice against homosexuals. Which means, when used that way, it is not a psychological term, but a silly word used to describe an ignorant bigot, instead of just calling them ignorant bigots.

@cazzie Most definitions define it as a fear and disdain for homosexual people. The idea behind that is that many forms off hatred are based on fear. Much of that fear or phobia is based on the unknown. It’s common for humans to hate and fear what w don’t understand.

I understand what heights are, but I still fear them. I even know what it’s like to fall, because I have a few times. Phobias are irrational fears, sure. I can fear something and still have respect for it, like snakes and spiders. If my fear makes me hate snakes and spiders and want to rid the planet of all of them, then that goes beyond phobia, don’t you think?

Homophobia is not a true phobia. A phobia is an irrational or unreasonable fear, such as arachnophobia, which is fear of spiders and the like, or ophidiophobia, fear of snakes. Homophobia is not a true phobia, it is a response to a societal perceptual norm. Up until recently, most men in Euro-American society were taught growing up that to be anything less than heterosexual was to be less of a man. This norm also implied a zero-tolerance. One was straight or “not-straight”, there was no grey area on the spectrum. Even one experimental encounter would (Much like yone was white or not-white, no matter what percentage of your heritage.) And once the perceived line was crossed, there was no going back.

I would think it more a socialogical reality. The fact is that homosexuality is a trait that has been suppressed with severe consequences for those openly exhibiting it. Acceptance of gay folks as “normal” is a relatively recent phenomenon. And as with all such “traditions”, revisions and reveleations crawl from more progressive regions slowly toward gradual acceptance by the overall society. I mean it isn’t just coincidence that you will find the same folks resisting evolution promulgating gay bashing legislation, and suppressing the vote. Such regressive nonsense is of course doomed to failure as those entrenched in such “traditions” increasingly find themselves confined on the wrong side of history. The final nail in the coffin of bias against gays is the current corporate and business rejection of such practices. Our backwater regions will fall in line quickly now that gay bashing is no longer merely un pc. Now that such stuff is economically punishing, open homophobia will vanish like snow in August.

Homophobia is a euphemism for bigot. It is not a phobia.

It has been argued that, some anti-gay men have an irrational fear that they might be gay themselves. I’ve always associated the phobia part of the term to this. A lot of homophobic men (not all) have later in life admitted that they themselves are gay and had fear of accepting themselves due to how society would treat them.

A fear of oneself is called ‘autophobia’.