Being against gays getting married makes you a homophobe? Am I to understand, Barman, you are against people that beleive in the bible?
Typical gay activist rhetoric. Call everyone who disagrees with
gays homophobes.
Homophobia is an etymologically incorrect term which most directly denotes "an unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward
homosexuals and
homosexuality",<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference">
[1]</sup> but it also includes a fear of increased political and social power of homosexuals in advancing their
agenda. The term is used regularly by activists to describe several kinds of people, which may or may not match the actual definition of "fear of homosexuals and homosexuality". The recipients of the homophobia label include those who feel uncomfortable around homosexuals, those who reveal that they oppose "gays", and even those who may privately support homosexuality but who fail to publicly support homosexuals when called upon to do so.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference">
[2]</sup>
The term homophobia is primarily used by people supportive of tolerance to homosexuality, to disparage people who are against said tolerance. Some claim that "it is intended to sound like a form of
mental illness", but this does not describe its popular use or the definition of the word. According to the
National Association for Research & Therapy on Homosexuality (NARTH), gay-rights advocate Gregory M. Herek, Ph.D. wrote that the term "homophobia" was useful in pushing forward the gay agenda in our culture.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference">
[3]</sup> "In his paper on homophobia, stigma, and sexual prejudice, Dr. Herek suggests that although the term "homophobia" was useful in pushing forward the gay agenda in our culture, the term may be too limited in its scope today."
For example, NARTH says,
<dl><dd>"The term "homophobia" is often used inaccurately to describe any person who objects to homosexual behavior on either moral, psychological or medical grounds. Technically, however, the terms actually denotes a person who has a phobia—or irrational fear—of homosexuality. Principled disagreement, therefore, cannot be labeled "homophobia." <sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference">
[4]</sup> </dd></dl> A study by University of Arkansas researchers concluded that the word "homophobia," is technically incorrect. Doctoral student Bunmi Olatunji, lead author of the study stated that homophobia is not actually a fear, and therefore it should not be "pathologized," or treated as a disease would be treated. The 138 participants in the 2001-2002 study, whose gender preferences were unknown to the researchers, were asked to complete a series of questionnaires and surveys. While some subjects displayed conservative sexual attitudes of elevated levels of disgust and dread of contamination toward homosexuals, the results showed a negative correlation between attitudes about homosexuals and measures of fear or anxiety.
Gregory M. Herek, a psychology professor at the University of California at Davis, and a recognized authority on prejudice against lesbians and gay men, credits psychologist George Weinberg with inventing the word homophobia in the late 1960s. However, the word "has a number of problems with it," said Herek, particularly because there is no basis for the "phobia" suffix in a clinical sense.
Connie Ress, a regional media manage at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation stated that she had no intention of dropping the use of the word due to semantical controversy, as discrimination against gay and the need for laws to protect them was the real issue.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference">
[5]</sup>
Conservative Christians and other people who strongly object to homosexuality often take offense at this term, which had led to the use of the term heterophobia to describe those who manifest an antipathy to those who uphold heterosexuality as normative or exclusively valid.
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