Beyond Labels: Defining The Roots and Realities of Homophobia

If someone accuses you of being Canadian, and you are not, you do not slip into paralyzed silence. If someone mistakes your profession to be something it is not, you do not crumble into senselessness. Instead, you acknowledge it is not true, and move on. Yet, the instant a person, particularly a man, accuses another man of being gay, the accused becomes immobilized in judgment; at all costs, this notion must be proven false. Not only is this a catalyst of hostility and control, but it can make one immediately docile. This defense mechanism and inherent fear are visceral; clearly, something has been ingrained. This is homophobia. But, seldom has homophobia been truly defined — a dictionary is no longer practical in the current vitriolic climate we all live in. We need something more.

An accusation of gayness can be an unassumed insult: the audience that it can truly hurt is invisible to the external world. Gayness cannot be seen or heard, and thus, a pejorative joke or notion unknowingly hurled at someone who is gay adds insult to injury — it reinforces abnormality. Every joke, every insult towards someone revolving around their actions being considered gay, is a reminder that being gay is seen as abnormal in society. In athletics, it is “locker room talk.” In broader culture, it is the colloquial notion that “boys will be boys.” But, what makes boys, boys? What makes gay people, gay? The impetus behind these insults generally lies in what gay people are meant to be — they are contingent on the archetype society has assigned to the community. But gay people are not “gay,” in the sense that not all of them dress in drag and talk in an effeminate voice. In fact, the majority do not. Gay people are gay in the sense that they love the same sex; their love is what defines them, not their personae. These insults, and broader assumptions, are the product of imprinted, artificial hate of those who are different. This is homophobia. And this is nothing new; history has long been rampant with hostility towards the abnormal, including gay people. But history is not as distant as many choose to believe.

In recent times it was abnormal for a woman to speak her mind — to even vote or open a credit card independently. In recent times it was abnormal to function in society as someone who was not white. In recent times it was abnormal to be an individual. We called these things racism, misogyny, and conformism. In even more recent times, the law forbade marriage of the same sex, because that is how votes were cast. But, instead of hate, we called this a matter of opinion. This is homophobia. Now, more than ever, we must recognize this sort of hate.

An accusation of gayness is not slander, just a falsity. An unassumed insult is not just poorly placed, but harmful. An abnormality is not wrong when we exist in a world in which abnormality is natural. Although it is easy to label what embodies homophobia, it is far more challenging to define what it is in itself. However, with these factors in mind, we can define what it is not. Homophobia is not love, it is not acceptance, and it is not empathy. If we as a country focussed more on these values, there would be less hate, and less homophobia. Acknowledging ingrained hate can no longer be considered progressive or a luxury. It must be seen for what it is: necessity.