echo0001 said:
I have a question: what do you believe is the genesis of homophobia? Why, do you think, does there seem to be so much of it in America? What do you think these people are really afraid of?
(Okay, one question, plus two )
the genesis of homophobia?
there's a long answer and a short answer.
short: we fear difference, and i think it's rather natural to find a sexual act that is not to your liking unappealing, if not disgusting. there are some sex acts that i am totally uninterested in, so i understand where a straight men would find the idea of two men having sex gross (yet, they seem to like "lesbians" making out). however, there's a huge difference between finding something gross, and claiming that something is "wrong" or "immoral" simply because the Bible tells you so (and then plead innocence to bigotry because, golly gosh, it's not me saying it, it's the Bible!!!) this is then combined with the idea that all gay men are simpering, limp-wristed half-men (i.e., essentially female), so i'd almost say that homophobia is rooted more in misogyny and sexism than anything else, the idea that femininity is at its core inferior to masculinity. and there's also the idea that one can "turn" gay, which means, in essence, to be feminized -- hence the use of anal rape by men on men in war or otherwise as a means of subjugation.
long: it's challenging for people to imagine that a different way of being human is not only acceptable, but as good as how they understand themselves. also, the "value," i think, gay people bring to the human family is to prove that we can and do exist beyond our capacity to reproduce. that's also a scary notion, especially if you root your worldview in a sort of God-Country-Family mindset. a huge discussion could follow, but the essence of it is simple.
i do believe that, very simply, people who are homophobic have very closed, rigid minds and cannot (or choose not to) deal with difference, diversity, unconvention, ambiguity, and complexity.
as for America ... on a global scale, our society is very tolerant. i'd be beheaded in Saudi Arabia, stoned to death in Afghanistan, and jailed in Egypt. American cities are great places to be gay, as urban Americans are as sophistocated and accepting of diversity as anyone else on earth. the probablem with more rural parts of America -- yes, forgive me for stereotyping, but we're speaking in broad strokes here -- is that 1) you can move to a town where you do not have to deal with people who are different from yourself, so you never have to encounter anyone who isn't a white Christian hetero, so it's easy to deamonize those who are different, and 2) there's no quesiton that Christianity is more important to the fabric of American life than it is to our Western counterparts in Europe and Australia; sadly, many churches and politicians have used Christianist homophobic bigotry -- to the point where it seems as if the Bible is nothing more than an anti-gay pamphlet -- in order to mobilize their masses to get to the voting booth. its' really no different than how racism was used to convert, post 1968, racist Dixiecrats into Republicans.