Homophobia refers to any act of rejection or discrimination against a person because of their sexual condition. It is a violence that is still present today although we have advanced, being able to present itself in multiple forms.
Homophobia is defined as the aversion towards homosexual men and women, although this term has also been applied to designate contempt for other members who also represent sexual diversity, such as bisexuals or transsexuals. Essentially, homophobia is synonymous with a degrading, discriminatory, offensive or unfavorable attitude towards a person simply because of their homosexual orientation.
The hatred and irrational fear experienced by homophobic people towards homosexual individuals is the engine of violence and discrimination against this group. Although in many countries these hateful behaviors are punishable by law, there are still places on the planet where what is punished is not discrimination, but the very fact of being homosexual.
- We recommend you read: “52 great phrases against Gender Violence”
Homophobia in society: will we be able to eradicate it?
The path that the LGTB community has had to traverse to date has not been easy at alltag. Until very recently, many rights achieved today seemed like an impossible utopia. However, the activism of many groups made it possible to start a fight with the ultimate goal of stopping non-heterosexual people from being discriminated against for who they are.
Homosexuality came to be included in psychiatric manuals as a mental illness, especially in the 1960s. At that time, a psychoanalyst named George Weinberg devised the term homophobia, which he used for the first time to refer to the degrading attitudes that many mental health professionals showed towards homosexual patients. Until then, there had been no specific word to describe this violence against the LGBT community, with the pain and suffering of these people silenced and even normalized.
Therefore, the seriousness of the matter at that time was such that there had not even been recognition of the phenomenon and the need to eradicate it. Simply, a word had not been found to describe violence against LGBT people because thiswas not even conceived as a social problemtag. Weinberg compensated for this lack and for this reason his term quickly began to gain a lot of popularity, being used in journalistic, scientific and political media.
Since Weinberg began to use this word that is now more than well known, there have been many legal changes regarding homosexuality. And it is that homophobia not only refers to individual behavior, but also to discrimination by institutions and governments. From the 70’s is when the most important legal advances begin to occur.
The entire process of achieving the rights of homosexual people went hand in hand with claims against other types of discrimination, such as machismo and racismtag. An event that is considered to have marked the beginning of the liberation of the LGTB community was the revolt of the clients of the Stonewall Inn, in Manhattan, in 1969, where for the first time non-heterosexual citizens rebelled against an oppressive system that discriminated against them and openly abused.
From this event, many LGTB associations began to work to make the group visible, combat homophobia and demand measures to achieve it. Little by little, numerous legal goals have been achieved, highlighting the legalization of same-sex marriage or the criminalization of homophobic behavior in some countries of the world.
In addition, at the social level, widespread hatred and rejection have been reduced, achieving increasing acceptance by non-normative people in general. However, . In this article we are going to talk about the types of homophobia that exist and the characteristics of each one.
What kinds of homophobia exist?
As we have been commenting, homophobia has been combated in recent years, although there is still a lot of work to be done. Unfortunately, to this day there continues to be stigma around LGBT people, with physical aggression towards members of this group occurring in the most serious cases. Let’s see the types of homophobia that, unfortunately, still exist.
1. Institutional homophobia
Institutional homophobia refers to norms or laws formally established against the LGTB collectivetag. It is a very serious type of discrimination, since it has the approval of higher bodies, including the State itself. In the places where this type of homophobia occurs, the situation of LGBT people is very unfavorable, since they are denied many fundamental human rights. In some areas their own life and integrity are in danger, and homosexuality is punished with prison or the death penalty with cruel methods to the extreme.
On many occasions it happens that, although the State begins to eliminate its homophobic laws, discrimination is perpetuated through other entities of great social influence, such as the Church. This means that violence and contempt towards non-heterosexual individuals is widely extended and even recognized as correct, since it has the approval of reference institutions.
2. Cultural homophobia
This type of homophobia constitutes a type of discrimination that is based on social norms and implicit values that are not included in the lawtag. These types of informal norms tend to be maintained by transmission between generations, either explicitly or through the mechanism of imitation of the people around us. Thus, if we live in an environment charged with homophobia, it is much more likely that we will develop rejection towards the LGTB collective.
A large part of the homophobic behaviors that are observed on a day-to-day basis have to do with this type of unwritten rules. In this sense, education and the environment play an essential role, since it is through them that we shape our schemes of the world. If from childhood we are taught that homosexuality is synonymous with weakness, as adults we will reject people who have this type of orientation or we will treat them differently according to our prejudice.
3. Interpersonal homophobia
Interpersonal homophobia is one that a specific individual carries out with respect to other peopletag. Discrimination carried out at the individual level can have two aspects:
- Cognitive homophobia: This type refers to the person’s cognitive system. The homophobic individual shows a set of beliefs that have in common the vision of homosexuality as something despicable, negative and far from what is correct and/or normal. These types of people are usually loaded with prejudices and stereotypes, which are the basis for their rejection. This is the case of those people who do not accept their children because they are homosexual, as they associate this sexual condition with all these negative conceptions.
- Behavioral homophobia: Many people go one step further. Not only do they have distorted and derogatory beliefs towards the LGTB community, but they also carry out explicit actions against these individuals. For example, they can physically attack another person because of their sexual orientation, carry out homophobic campaigns to generate hate… and a host of despicable actions based on in hatred and ignorance.
4. Radical homophobia
This type refers to homophobia in which violence and extreme actions that seek to intentionally harm people from the LGTB community are encouraged.
5. Prohibitionist homophobia
This type of homophobia is characterized by the existence of a strong system of values that seeks to prohibit or condemn homosexuality in a clear manner. There is no explicit physical violence, but there are strict rules.
6. Denialist homophobia
This type of homophobia refers to the denial that homosexuality existstag. In many societies, the possibility that an individual could be homosexual has been rejected, justifying her attraction to people of the same sex based on false causes without any type of scientific evidence.
7. Avoidative homophobia
Homophobia of this type consists of the person avoiding any type of interaction or contact with homosexual people.
8. Morbid homophobia
This type of homophobia is based on the premise that homosexuality is a disease, therefore it needs to be cured with the appropriate treatment. This type of homophobia has given rise to many professionals with dubious training offering treatments that promise to definitively cure the disease of homosexuality.
This is not only an act of brutal discrimination, but it is also a way of doing business using the insecurity of homosexual people who seek to be accepted. Promising that “change” leads them to further internalize their disability as human beings, with all that this implies for a person. Thus, denying what oneself is is the most violent act that a person can exert towards himself. The emergence of these conversion therapies is a ruthless strategy to increase hatred towards LGBT people.
9. Disguised homophobia
Camouflaged homophobia is one that manifests itself in more subtle ways, although they are nonetheless serious, since they represent a deep hatred and rejection. Some people with this type of homophobia adopt a posture of false acceptance, stating that they do not care what other people do, as long as they do not demand legal advances such as being able to marry or adopt children.
Other people justify their hatred with baseless excuses or express their contempt in a more measured way. An example of this could be stating that it does not matter if their son is gay, although if they can choose they prefer that he be “normal”. Taking for granted that everyone is heterosexual is also a very subtle form that occurs on many occasions, forcing the person to “clarify” her orientation and “come out of the closet.”
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.