Friday, June 22, 2012

Homophibia

No, it's not a typo. It's a new word. My friend Giles Fraser, an extraordinarily clever English clergyman, invented it on Monday:
ho.mo.phib.ia | noun -- Definition: the lies people tell in order to justify homophobia

And so he inspired me, not to invent a new word but to start a list -- a list of the lies people tell in order to justify homophobia. Here's what I've got so far:

"Homosexuality is unnatural."Actually, homosexuality naturally occurs in species ranging from primates to gut worms. Why a percentage of animals (including humans) express a sexual orientation toward members of the same sex isn't clear. What is clear is that they do, which makes "homosexuality is unnatural" a homophib.

"Being gay is a choice."Another homophib. Regular-or-decaf is a choice. Chocolate-or-vanilla is a choice. Paper-or-plastic is a choice. Homosexuality is no more a "choice" than heterosexuality is. There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation, but there is a consensus that sexuality is a continuum. So the "choice" is not to be gay, straight, or somewhere in between; the "choice" is to build our own healthy relationships -- and leave other people alone to build theirs.

Read the rest  ... (there are five more) ... on the Huffington Post



And so he inspired me, not to invent a new word but to start a list -- a list of the lies people tell in order to justify homophobia. Here's what I've got so far:

1 comment:

Patricia Brush said...

My friend, on reading this post, comments that homotibia, then, would mean being gay to the bone.