Is Homophobia Really the Word You Want to Use?

“Homophobia” is not the best word to describe people’s aggression toward gay and lesbian persons. Phobias are fears.  To describe something as homophobia is to identify the motivations people have for what they say, believe, and do.  There are some who would say that indeed all prejudice is rooted in fear.  I’ve not seen definitive evidence to support that claim.  I just see it get asserted frequently.  I personally think motivations are hard to unravel and really shouldn’t be done by strangers. 

The problem with calling it a phobia is that it moves the discussion into the psychological realm.  That’s a fine place for the conversation to take place if indeed we’re going to talk about human psychology.  But the people who generally label things as “homophobia” do so from a moral position.  They don’t respond to the people whom they regard as homophobic the way they respond to people who are claustrophobic, agoraphobic, or glossophobic.  At least I hope they don’t make ridicule those suffering from legitimate phobias the way they ridicule those who they would label homophobic. 

What we have been calling homophobia is a product of moral systems.  It emerges from a moral judgment about a particular group of people’s orientation, behavior and lifestyle.  People who object to the aggression toward gay and lesbian persons also do so from a moral system.  It is a moral system that says a person ought not be subjected to another person’s aggression.