Changes

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. While the term ''phobia'' is an irrational fear of something, nobody is afraid of homosexuals, and nobody fears contracting homosexuality.  That is in contrast to heterophobia, whose existence has been documented.

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. While the term ''phobia'' is an irrational fear of something, nobody is afraid of homosexuals, and nobody fears contracting homosexuality.  That is in contrast to heterophobia, whose existence has been documented.

We are bigots. That's about it. We are scared of gay people because we are total idiots. And youre an idiot for being here.

The word homophobia comes from combining the Greek prefix ''homo-'', meaning "same", and suffix ''-phobia'', meaning "fear of". In its early usage, the term described heterosexual fears that others might think they were homosexual <ref>http://www.narth.com/docs/creates.html</ref>  The [[neologism]] was promoted by [[George Weinberg]], a gay activist and psychologist, who attempted to define it in clinical literature shortly before the downgrading of homosexuality as a mental illness by the [[American Psychiatric Association]] in 1973.  Weinberg claimed it was "the dread of being in close quarters with homosexuals -- and in the case of homosexuals themselves, selfloathing."<ref>Plummer, David, ''One of the Boys: Masculinity, Homophobia, and Modern Manhood'', [http://books.google.com/books?id=xHGz4f_2_7IC&pg=PA3&ots=U8ktZZgnAk&dq=George+Weinberg+homophobia&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=d7hjCcZ1uuBlgdLyRjUJwEn51uA#PPA3,M1 pp. 3-4]: "'Homophobia was introduced into the clinical literature by George Weinberg in 1972, in ''Society and the Healthy Homosexual.'' </ref>  The term then entered common usage beginning with [[pornographic]] publications. <ref>Gregory M. Herek, Ph.D., published ''Beyond 'Homophobia': Thinking About Sexual Prejudice and Stigma in the Twenty-First Century,'' in the April, 2004, issue of Sexuality Research & Social Policy. </ref>

 

 

The term's meaning has not been accepted or agreed upon within the psychological [[therapeutic]] community.  William O'Donohue and Christine E. Caselles <ref>William O'Donohue and Christine E. Caselles, [http://www.springerlink.com/content/n0264m864t146585/ Homophobia: Conceptual, definitional, and value issues], Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, Volume 15, Number 3, Springer Netherlands, September, 1993. ISSN 0882-2689</ref> have concluded based upon research within the therapeutic community a clear understanding of the term has not been adequately evaluated and it is not clear whether the term can be accurately characterized.  They have concluded, "the construct of homophobia, as it is usually used, makes an illegitimately pejorative evaluation of certain open and debatable value positions, much like the former disease construct of homosexuality."

 

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.<ref>No fear factor in 'homophobia,' by Keith Taylor, The Washington Blade</ref>

==Application==

==Application==