Defining Homophobia - Comments

Wow, this article is deep. You know, I agree wholeheartedly about calling people gay and sort of treating homosexual people as a trend. That's just like people pretending to be homosexual or bisexual because it's "cool" and when people who are truly bi/homosexual admit that they're just that, they get severely bashed for "Wanting to be cool."

I, myself, used to be highly uncomfortable with homosexuals and bisexuals, but I never really treated them any different since they are people.

Now when I found myself in a room with gay/bi people, I just say hi to them and if they become my friends, then we're friends, or if they dislike me, than they hate me. I treat everyone like people, transvestites, bis, homosexuals, other nationalities, crossdressers. I'm friends with them all. :)

Fantastic article.
I liked that you really established that just because you're mad at someone who happens to be gay doesn't mean you're a homophobe early on. It set a serious tone for the article to come.

my best guy friend is bi. we've been friends since we popped out the cooter and thatsnot gonna change cause he prefers guys over girls. its not a choice to be gay or lasbians. its natural. we should all know that just cuase someone likest the same sex doesnt make them wrong.

I'll admit that sometimes it is a little awkward to sit in the same room as a girl or guy who is homosexual. But when my best friend told me that she was Bi, it didn't really change anything about our relationship. She even admitted that she thought I was good-looking, but I just treat her like my other friends.

I didn't know that she was Bisexual until after three or four years of our friendship and I have gay family members too, so if someone pretended to be friends with a homosexual just for the popularity I would find it quite revolting to be honest.

I can't believe gay is a trend now, bad enough women adopted thousands of small dogs in the name of fashion then a year later left them starving on the streets. now women pretend to be friends with gay men just in the name of fashion. Living beings aren't jewelry, we have feelings like anybody else. I'm a bisexual female and if somebody talked to me and befriended me just to be fashionable I would be angry and depressed.

Great article. :)
And it's SO true. I don't do that, because I really do aim for equality, but I've seen people who do. We're actually facing that same problem with race, too. Sad, but true. It's so hard to dislike someone, or try to fire them, if they're a minority. Doesn't matter what a person does to deserve it. :(

Ooh, and for the record, my best friend is gay. And we were best friends WAY before even he realized it. :D

Interesting. Never thought about homophobia like that before.

I think homophobia is just the fear/hatred of homosexuality itself, like, not just the part of a person that is them being gay. I mean, being gay isn't the defining part of someone, just like being straight doesn't completely make up someone else.

The thing I first noticed after reading this article was that not once did you use the term homosexual - which encompasses not only men, but woman. It just reminded me that a lot of the time, especially in media, when we're talking about homosexuality it seems to boil down to men. I think it's a bit dismissive of the struggle that lesbians face in this country too. They struggle with hatred and attacks and prejudices and being pigeon-holed within a certain “type.” I know the term 'Gay' can be used when speaking about people of both sexes, but I think the connotation with the word is usually 'Penises!'

I think it would also help make this statement - 'they've changed the meaning of gay from a sexual orientation to a special untouchable group' - a bit more...true. (To say that people have changed the meaning of 'gay' makes me think of how it used to mean 'happy' and then it transformed into meaning a 'homosexual man' - for me, that took focus away from your point.)

Also, saying it 'dehumanizes' homosexuals seems to a really big exaggerations or rather a misuse of the word. From the article, I got that you were saying it creates a double standard ­ that society is saying it's okay to treat homosexuals differently as long as you're doing it in a way that 'benefits' them - and that by labeling them as 'untouchable' it says that they're not equal but better; if that's the point you're making, I can definitely agree. But it's not dehumanizing.

Overall though, I think this article touched on a really good point: That what we want here is [i]equality[/i] - not special treatment, not special rights - simply for everyone to share the same rights. I did think that this article would have been a little more balanced if you included an actual definition of homophobia (since your title is “Defining Homophobia”) and if you shows some examples of what [i]would[/i] be homophobia (to counter the example of what [i]would not[/i] be homophobia.