Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.
--Coretta Scott King
To all my GLBT friends and readers, Happy National Coming Out Day. I honor your courage in living an open and honest life. I cherish your friendship and can't imagine my life without you in it.
In addition to all that, I think a lot of homophobes are really homosexuals who are so deep in the closet and so full of fear and self loathing, that they feel an overwhelming need to hurt someone else.
ReplyDeleteI think fear is at the heart of it. Fear of people who seem different, fear of thinking about sexuality as a spectrum rather than a bright line, fear of sexuality in general, fear of people who are incorrectly portrayed by a lot of the media as "out there". I think there's also a lot of blind acceptance. Religious leaders (not all, but some) are blindly accepted when they make pronouncements, and their followers don't question "Hey, does the Bible really say that? Do we follow every single statement found in the Bible or do we discard ones that don't make sense, like stoning disrespectful children?"
ReplyDeleteYay, happy National Coming Out Day to you too! I like this post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being an ally, Carol!
ReplyDelete