Homophobia

Homophobia is the irrational fear and aversion toward homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality and therefore of homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual people based on prejudice. The European Union considers it analogous to racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and sexism. The term “homophobia” therefore generically indicates a set of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors adverse to homosexuality or homosexual people.

Is not included in any psychological diagnostic manual as a pathology, it is, therefore, wrong to think that it is medically a phobia, as the name might lead us to believe.

Homophobia is not linked to a political belief or a cultural level, but rather to the level of equilibrium of the individual. In fact, it has been observed since the

In the 1960s that “authoritarian personalities”, rigid, insecure, who feel threatened by the “other than oneself”, obviously not only homosexual, tend towards homophobia. High levels of homophobia have also been found in people struggling with strong latent or repressed homosexuality.

For homophobia, we can also mean the fear of homosexuality, and in particular, the fear of being considered homosexual, and the consequent behaviors aimed at avoiding homosexuals and the situations considered associated with them.

Homophobia consists in justifying, condoning, or excusing acts of violence or discrimination, marginalization, and persecution perpetrated against a person because of his real or alleged homosexuality.

It’s probably related to the fear of being considered homosexual. This fear is more frequent in men than in women because from the cultural point of view the homosexual male is considered a “sissy” and in the dominant sexist thought.

Internalized homophobia is the acceptance by gays and lesbians of prejudice, negative labels, and discriminatory attitudes towards homosexuality. This internalization of prejudice is mostly unconscious and can lead to experiencing one’s sexual orientation with difficulty, opposing it, denying it, or even harboring discriminatory feelings towards homosexuals.

There are very serious consequences to homophobia, in fact, it can become the cause of bullying, violence, or mobbing. Some studies on this have clearly shown that homosexual adolescents are at greater risk of suicidal ideation than heterosexual peers.

There have also been reports of contexts in which LGBT students have complained: the presence of acts of discrimination, such as denial of financial and health services, the giving of abusive verbal labels, attempts to convert and fear of sexual violence against them. This situation led to the hiding of their identity, the avoidance of some courses, the premature cessation of studies, and also the implementation of suicide attempts.

Homophobia is a form of psychological and non-psychological violence, I hope that one day all this can end, and I hope that people can understand how serious the situation is.