Homophobia is a Social Disease

“Oh my gosh, I soooo don’t want to go to Art today - it’s soooo gay!”Newsflash, guys: it is really hard for a school subject to have a sexual orientation - or to feel an emotion; whichever way you want to take that word. But I am not here today to debate the meaning of the word ‘gay’. What I am here to talk about is why homophobia is a social disease.

As I just showed you, sometimes we use homosexuality as an insult without even realizing it. Often, however, we know exactly what we are saying. It is incredible just how frequently you will hear one kid call another kid a ‘homo’ on the playground. Well guess what? We are all homos! Biologically, humans are classified as ‘homo sapiens sapiens’. So calling someone a ‘homo’ isn’t saying that they’re gay at all - it is simply implying that they’re human, which they most probably are.

"Homosexuality is an abomination".

“Genius—Glyn Williams’s answer to this WTF q...

English: DIGNITY & RESPECT (2001) is a U.S. Army t...

So what is homophobia? Homophobia is a fear of and/or hostility towards gay people or homosexuality. It is often expressed visibly, audibly, and sometimes violently. Although people grow up exposed to more or less the same beliefs about sexuality, they can hold quite different attitudes in their adult lives. While some people believe that homosexuality is a valid lifestyle, others violently object - they view being gay as unnatural, or a sin.

Let’s take a look at the Bird Flu for a moment. Media coverage of this looming pandemic has sent the public into a frenzy; 68,000 New Zealanders has bought an antibiotic which apparently prevents the disease. Why are we so worked up over Bird Flu? Because we are afraid of catching it. So it makes sense to conclude that the reason that homophobes are scared of gay people is that they are...