Homophobes Might Be Hidden Homosexuals

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(10-04-2017, 11:07 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: I spoke to the origin of the word. I apologize for not supplying the link, but this is where my quote from a few posts back came from:

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/Herek_2004_SRSP.pdf


It goes into detail over the trouble with trying to look at homophobia as a clinical term to describe a fear when it describes far more than that. Weinberg certainly seems to disagree with the notion that a new word is needed, most likely because it is his baby, but I do not disagree that a more useful term could exist. That aside, it doesn't really impact the way Weinberg has been using the term since the 70's and the way it is accepted today. This particular paper goes on to discuss the way homophobia influenced the creation of other terms like transphobia and AIDS-phobia and mention the outrage from the antigay community as it marked a shift from looking at being gay as the problem to looking at discrimination against gay people being the problem. 

It makes sense that a group that believed being gay was a mental illness are staunch opponents of a term that has a clinical stigma attached to it. 

From your article:

“I coined the word homophobia to mean it was a phobia about homosexuals….It was a fear of homosexuals which seemed to be associated with a fear of contagion, a fear of reducing the things one fought for—home and family. It was a religious fear and it had led to great brutality as fear always does.”

We were fortunate to have the exact words of the person that coined the phrase. Whatever it has bastardized into today cannot change the intent of the phrase. 

But as I've said all along: Nobody is going to take your word from you. It is up to the user to decide his or her vocabulary. 

I will use homophobic for those that fear homosexuality and I will use ignorant to describe those that simply hate.