Institutionalized Homophobia

The Military’s Institutionalization of Homophobia Introduction Psychologist George Weinberg coined the term homophobia in the 1960’s to describe the fear that some heterosexuals had when they were around homosexuals. The Oxford Dictionary defines homophobia as “an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people.” Weinberg was investigating the fact that “many heterosexual psychoanalysts evinced strongly negative personal reactions to being around a homosexual in a nonclinical setting” (Herek 7). While the term homophobia is relatively new, not appearing in print until 1969, the essence of homophobia can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greece (Herek 7). Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick discusses the failure of “the new psychiatry of gay acceptance” to offer resistance to “the wish endemic in the culture surrounding and supporting it: the wish that gay people not exist” (Sedgwick 23). While many anti-LGBT groups would deny that they wish gay people not exist, they contradict themselves when they try to distinguish between their views and wishing gay people not exist. ‘Non-extremist’ (if that is possible) anti-LGBT groups say

they don’t wish to eradicate homosexuals from society, but they don’t want to see homosexual behavior. This view is very easy to abide by. It just means that homosexuals can only be themselves when no one else can see them or hear them. These views have been engrained into our society for so long that if it is even possible to completely eradicate homophobia from society, it will take hundreds, possibly even thousands, of years. Militaries and law-making bodies all over the world perpetuate homophobia.

Homophobic Legislation Defense of Marriage Act The Defense of Marriage Act is a perfect example of how homophobia is so deeply rooted in our society. Enacted in 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages that are granted in other states. The Defense of Marriage Act denies same-sex...