"Canadian PM Warns Uganda on Antigay Law"

Well, on the issue of homophobia as fear *it is called a phobia after all*, I think there is a slight problem with the word phobia being apart of it.

If someone is afraid of heights, or snakes, do they lash out violently and hatefilled towards snakes or heights? With phobias, the behavior viewed as homophobic seem to be a reaction reserved solely for racist, religious, and anti-gay phobias. It seems to be seperate than say a fear of jellyfish (They creep the crap out of my like nothing else does). You dont react with hate or violence to a normal phobia, as homophobic (for want of a better word) do when they see two guys holding hands.

I dont see it as being about fear, as in a primal fear that something threatens your life. It to me is a matter of purely social construct. Religion says homosexuality is wrong, and it is not that a homophobic person fears LGBT people, but that they are conditioned to hate them by the social contructs they are apart of. Thats why depending on what part of the spectrum in a movement you are (Liberal christian, moderate, conservative, fundementalist), often defines your views on such a matter. Growing up in a Moderate lutheren church, I went through some hard times when I began to come to grips with my sexuality. I was in a church that while welcoming of all people, including LGBT, also had some people who strayed more to the conservative wings. I was afraid of being shunned by members of the church, which is why I have not yet been able to come out to my grandmother.

My grandmother those have homophobic views, but I do not think she fears gays; she just has been taught her whole life that gays are bad. I know she would have to think long and hard about her views when she learns my truth, but I also know that apart of why she has her views is because she grew up in a time when the notion of Gay was unheard of. People didn't talk about such things, and when it came more to light, she was taught it was wrong and supicious.

homophobia really in my mind is not about fear. it is about intolerence.

I wouldn't say MissNomer was homophobic. She was struggling with her aprehension about who she was, but she also, it seems, grew up like many of us did; being taught to treat gay with mistrust/disgust by society. I think fear really only comes into the picture when it comes to people questioning their sexuality. That fear of what others will say and do keeps alot of people in the closet.

but in it self, fear is responce for the need to stay alive and protect oneself.

Homophobia seems to be built not on that primal responce for self preservation, but on social constructs created to breed a sense of superiority.

 

Get out of my head, Emberstone. And cease being insightful. It's unsettling.

 

I still think there is a element of choice when it comes to hate. How much you hate a person or group is related to social views of said group, but still, you choose if you act on it, and to some extent, if you even choose to follow that hate.

I guess I just always found the idea of fearing a person because they are black, white, chistian, jew, muslem, gay, etc to be purely irrational.

 

I don't fear people, I fear movements or ideology.