What do you think about homophobia?

Heehee. It’s unfounded, judgmental, and makes the homophobes appear uneducated and ignorant. As well as hateful and pious.

It’s absolutely a form of hatred. And of ignorance.
I kind of feel bad for homophobics- what are they so afraid of? It’s like they are so scared of the “other” that they would rather be filled with hate and fear than really think about things and educate themselves.

It pisses me the f—- off. end of story.

It makes me sad just thinking about it.

I don’t like it. I find it incredibly frustrating and a bit depressing—that someone could actually be afraid of another person falling in love.

It boggles my mind that people can be so close-minded, misguided and uneducated. It’s 2009, we should have it together by now. We know that you can’t “catch gay” that the gays didn’t “cause aids”, etc etc etc. I don’t know what the problem is.

It is backward thinking and will one day be seen that way by society as a whole.

I dont know why anybody would be scared of another person unless they were trying to harm them.

I spit on homophobia. Pccktoi!

Like sexism or racism. As time goes by, there’s less of it as societies mature and people are enlightened – and then there’s a backlash, like a pendulum, by people afraid of change.

Hopefully it will go the way of footbinding and slavery, less and less until it is barely there at all.

I think it’s awful. It breaks my ultimate guideline, the Golden Rule.

Why can’t people learn to mind their own business and let others live life the way they want to?

I don’t necessarily agree that it is a form of hatred, it is more just not understanding. Since the beginning of time, humans have misunderstood one group or another, thereby creating an irrational fear of them. I know people who are afraid of black people. They don’t hate them; they don’t wish ill will upon them, they just don’t get that there is no difference (other than skin color) between one another, and are afraid of them. Same thing with homophobia. I don’t think of it as hatred, that is much more intense. It is just a ignorance of what it is to be gay, and the implications for others (i.e. none).

Homophobia is just one of many outlets narrow minded people (dare I say ignorant people?) use when they can’t understand why people think or act differently than themselves.

@onesecondregrets Lurve for “Pcctoi!”

When I think of homophobia, I often think of Frank Fitts (played by Chris Cooper) from the film American Beauty. Self loathing, closeted, hater afraid of his own sexuality.

I almost almost feel bad for them as they are wasting so much energy on being prejudice, they are missing out on possible relationships that could enrich their lives. Very sad.

But I agree with @laureth – It will eventually fade away. i just hope it does so in my lifetime.

I’m just going to wade in here and play devil’s advocate for a moment. I am not justifying or condoning homophobia, but I think just hating it outright is silly without thinking from multiple points of view.

I am going to approach from a biological point of view. Can homosexuals reproduce? No, they cannot. Yes, in this day and age we have the technology so that no one ever actually has to engage in sexual intercourse in order to father/mother a child, but it hasn’t always been so. From an evolutionary point of view, homosexuals are a drain in resources. They don’t propagate which means that in a community of humans, the population is not replacing itself completely.

It is certainly not an argument that applies today and I do deplore homophobia but, unfortunately, it does make a certain amount of sense.

@KatawaGrey I see your point, but consider this. The world is quickly becoming overpopulated and frankly it’s getting WAY out of hand. It seems to me that we are replacing ourselves almost TOO well. Maybe the increase in acceptance for homosexuality is a response to that? (I’m taking into account your reproduction argument) Also, while gay people can’t reproduce in the old fashioned way, many of them adopt. Doesn’t that count for contributing to humankind? Also, while I understand your reproduction argument, what about heterosexual people who are unable to reproduce naturally? Or those who simply choose not to reproduce? Are they also a drain on resources?

I look forward to your response :)

Homophobia is for the closet gays. If you are comfortable with your own sexuality why would you care about anyone else’s sexuality?

@essieness I think a better way to solve the overpopulation problem would be for people who cannot afford to have 14 children (I’m looking at you, octuplet lady) to NOT HAVE 14 CHILDREN. Not that poor people shouldn’t have children. Being a parent is one of the most rewarding things in life (or so I’ve heard), and is in our biological instincts, but some people need to know when to say when.

Note: Sorry about being off topic with this post.

I’m scared for their (homosexuals) perishing souls.

@KatawaGrey – I just made an answer in response to the evolutionary angles of homosexuality in the other thread. Here’s a link to my comment there.

I am scared for their (homophobes) perishing brain cells.

Homophobia, antisemitism, racism, assumptions about people who are fat, short, tall, religious, not religious, smart, savant, disabled, daredevils, introverted, agoraphobic, mentally ill, physically ill, physically unusual, gifted, not gifted, long hair, short hair, creative, non creative, analytical, anti-social, alcoholic, addicted, computer geeks, computer illiterate, overly sexual, sexually repressed, asexual, ugly, pretty, money poor, filthy rich, dress differently, famous, have tattoos, too young, too old, have piercings, have toupee, don’t have toupee, eat no meat, eat meat, hate cats, love cats, political, anti-political, for war, against war…

No matter who we are or where we live there will be someone somewhere who will judge us negatively for living our lives. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone worked on themselves rather than looked for another group to bash?

@seVen Be scared all you want. I’m not. And since it’s my soul, it’s really none of your business.

We all have souls. Yes, for the most part Christianity views homosexuality as a sin, but in my views God sees all sin the same. No one type of sin is worse than another. It’s because of that, and the fact that I know I still sin, that I cannot look down on someone else because of sin.

I’ll also be honest by saying that it kind of weirds me out when a guy hits on me.

@essieness: I agree with you. The world is becoming far too overpopulated and because humans have no natural predators left, it’s not as if some other species is feeding off our growing numbers. As for the people who cannot/choose not to reproduce, from an evolutionary standpoint, yes, they are a drain on resources. I am an excellent example of that. My mother could not get pregnant the normal way. She had to go through a number of procedures, infertility treatments and surgeries to get pregnant. Before we had advanced enough for her to be able get pregnant, she would never have had children. I’m not saying she is less valuable as a human being, but just evolutionarily speaking, yes, she is less valuable. Also, in relation to overpopulation, because humans have made so many medical advancements, people who would otherwise have died out are breeding and thus our genes are becoming more and more full of crap (to put it absolutely scientifically). I would not be surprised if some disease came along that was able to kill a whole bunch of us because of the weakness in our genes.

@dynamicduo: If homosexuality is genetic, at least in part, it makes perfect sense that it wouldn’t necessarily be expressed in all members of a family. Brown-eyed parents can have blue-eyed children and right-handed people can give birth to left-handed people. By the same token, it could pop up unexpectedly. It would make sense that it would be a recessive trait so it could be passed down through a family for generations before it was expressed phenotypically (I remember biology class!).

@KatawaGrey You said “because humans have made so many medical advancements, people who would otherwise have died out are breeding and thus our genes are becoming more and more full of crap (to put it absolutely scientifically). I would not be surprised if some disease came along that was able to kill a whole bunch of us because of the weakness in our genes”

I couldn’t agree with you more.

It breaks my fucking heart.

Okay, I’ll amnend my previous statement. I think it has moreto do with ignorance than hatred. Hatred is probably a product of ignorance. Some people are just incapable of understanding for whatever reason. Lack of empathy, perhaps. It’s not anything that’s happened to them so I guess they don’t think about the signifcant impact that homophobia has on gay people.

@seven: I’ve made this argument at least twice on Fluther, so I’m not making it again in full here, but there is no Scriptural basis for concluding that homosexuality is a sin that will withstand even the slightest hermeneutic rigor. Further, there are same-sex couples in the Bible—David and Jonathan and Ruth and Naomi in the Old Testament, and the Roman Centurion and his slave/lover in the Gospels—and each one of them is held up as a role model.

So you do not need to fear for the souls of gay people. After all, Jesus did say “Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven”—and I can think of no more righteous thing that reminding people by example that Jesus also said, “What you do to the least of them, you do to Me.”

It seems the ones who are the most homophobic are the ones who are unstable about their own orientation.

For what it’s worth, gay people (assuming they’re fertile) can reproduce. I’m the daughter of a lesbian. (All she had to do was have sex with someone she didn’t find all that attractive, but if someone wants a kid, they are willing to go through a lot.)

There is also a theory that super-fertile moms are more likely to have gay sons in with their other children, so while they might be “evolutionary dead ends” (if they don’t breed, like Mom did), they are a side effect of someone who is definitely able to reproduce. And at that rate, they’re going to need all the gay uncles they can collect to take care of that huge family (thereby ensuring more nieces and nephews grow up). Gay people don’t have to have kids to pass their genes along.

This smacks of homophobia-phobia!

I hear it’s hatred, it’s ignorance and so on and so forth. Isn’t it very ignorant to make these assumptions about a person who is merely uncomfortable around gay people?

I’m only afraid of homophobes when they come along with baseball bats and tire irons… or legislation.

Merely uncomfortable does not a homophobe make. I have every reason to be scared of homophobes, thank you very much.

I guess it’s another case of etymological misuse. The phobia, from Greek “afraid/scared” to discriminatory / prejudiced.

A different term should be used, really.

I think fear pretty much sums it up.

Yeah fear!

Can’t really condemn people for being “fearful”, as long as their fear doesn’t turn into aggression, open, passive or otherwise, or even discriminatory behavior.

i feel like i can’t even answer these types of questions without like exploding.
especially since i’m in the middle of working on a paper about the controversy over homosexuality for english, and i do research twice a week on opposing view points, and the idea that there is a point of view that says homosexuals are disgusting, etc, just. i can’t even explain how angry it makes me.

though i don’t really understand why the term ‘homophobe’ is applied to the hatred/etc of gays. it’s usually used to describe hatred and prejudice, not fear or mistrust.

@tiffyandthewall It’s an extrapolation. The idea is the some people act hateful towards and discriminate against homosexuals because they are afraid of homosexuality. I don’t know whether or not I agree with that line of thought, but there it is.

Is Miss California (ex) considered a homophobe for stating she believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman? If that defines homophobia, then count me in.