AGLBICAL

SEXUAL PREJUDICE
Homophobia & Heterosexism

People with homosexual or bisexual orientations have long been stigmatized. With the rise of the gay political movement in the late 1960s, however, homosexuality's condemnation as immoral, criminal, and sick came under increasing scrutiny. When the American Psychiatric Association dropped homosexuality as a psychiatric diagnosis in 1973, the question of why some heterosexuals harbor strongly negative attitudes toward homosexuals began to receive serious scientific consideration.

Society's rethinking of sexual orientation was crystallized in the term homophobia, which heterosexual psychologist George Weinberg coined in the late 1960s. Weinberg used homophobia to label heterosexuals' dread of being in close quarters with homosexuals as well as homosexuals' self loathing. The word first appeared in print in 1969 and was subsequently discussed at length in Weinberg's 1972 book, Society and the Healthy Homosexual.

The American Heritage Dictionary (1992 edition) defines homophobia as "aversion to gay or homosexual people or their lifestyle or culture" and "behavior or an act based on this aversion." Other definitions identify homophobia as an irrational fear of homosexuality.

Around the same time, heterosexism began to be used as a term analogous to sexism and racism, describing an ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any nonheterosexual form of behavior, identity, relationship, or community (Herek, 1990). Using the term heterosexism highlights the parallels between antigay sentiment and other forms of prejudice, such as racism, antisemitism, and sexism.

Like institutional racism and sexism, heterosexism pervades societal customs and institutions. It operates through a dual process of invisibility and attack. Homosexuality usually remains culturally invisible; when people who engage in homosexual behavior or who are identified as homosexual become visible, they are subject to attack by society.

Examples of heterosexism in the United States include the continuing ban against lesbian and gay military personnel; widespread lack of legal protection from antigay discrimination in employment, housing, and services; hostility to lesbian and gay committed relationships, recently dramatized by passage of federal and state laws against same-gender marriage; and the existence of sodomy laws in more than one-third of the states.

Although usage of the two words has not been uniform, homophobia has typically been employed to describe individual antigay attitudes and behaviors whereas heterosexism has referred to societal-level ideologies and patterns of institutionalized oppression of non-heterosexual people.

By drawing popular and scientific attention to antigay hostility, the creation of these terms marked a watershed. Nevertheless, they have important limitations.

Critics have observed that homophobia is problematic for at least two reasons.

First, empirical research does not indicate that heterosexuals' antigay attitudes can reasonably be considered a phobia in the clinical sense. Indeed, the limited data available suggest that many heterosexuals who express hostility toward gay men and lesbians do not manifest the physiological reactions to homosexuality that are associated with other phobias (see Shields & Harriman, 1984).

Second, using homophobia implies that antigay prejudice is an individual, clinical entity rather than a social phenomenon rooted in cultural ideologies and intergroup relations. Moreover, a phobia is usually experienced as dysfunctional and unpleasant. Antigay prejudice, however, is often highly functional for the heterosexuals who manifest it.

As antigay attitudes have become increasingly central to conservative political and religious ideologies since the 1980s, these limitations have become more problematic. However, heterosexism, with its historic macro-level focus on cultural ideologies rather than individual attitudes, is not a satisfactory replacement for homophobia.

Scientific analysis of the psychology of antigay attitudes will be facilitated by a new term. Sexual prejudice serves this purpose nicely. Broadly conceived, sexual prejudice refers to all negative attitudes based on sexual orientation, whether the target is homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. Given the current social organization of sexuality, however, such prejudice is almost always directed at people who engage in homosexual behavior or label themselves gay, lesbian, or bisexual (Herek, 2000).

It is an attitude (i.e., an evaluation or judgment).
It is directed at a social group and its members.
It is negative, involving hostility or dislike.

Conceptualizing heterosexuals' negative attitudes toward homosexuality and bisexuality as sexual prejudice – rather than homophobia – has several advantages. First, sexual prejudice is a descriptive term. Unlike homophobia, it conveys no a priori assumptions about the origins, dynamics, and underlying motivations of antigay attitudes.

Second, the term explicitly links the study of antigay hostility with the rich tradition of social psychological research on prejudice.

Third, using the construct of sexual prejudice does not require value judgments that antigay attitudes are inherently irrational or evil.

Herek, G. M. (1990). The context of anti-gay violence: Notes on cultural and psychological heterosexism. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5, 316-333. [Back to text]

Shields, S. A., & Harriman, R. E. (1984). Fear of male homosexuality: Cardiac responses of low and high homonegative males. Journal of Homosexuality, 10(1/2), 53-67.

WHAT IS HETEROSEXUAL PRIVILEGE?

I Have Heterosexual Privilege If……

I don’t have to worry about hiding my friends, partner, and my weekend activities and can talk about it when I come in to work on Monday morning.

--I don’t have to feel like a split personality.
--I am able to be fully who I am at work or school without having to worry about what others may say about my partner or friends.
--I don’t have to lead a double life.

If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure that my neighbors will be neutral, pleasant, and/or accepting of me.

I can turn on the TV or radio or open up to the front page of the paper and see people of my orientation widely and positively represented.

When people talk about our national heritage or civilization, I am shown that people like me did contribute to it in positive and healthy ways.

I can, at my workplace, talk about my partner or have a picture on my desk, without fearing that people will automatically disapprove or think that I am being “flamboyant,” “blatant,” or “forcing my beliefs” upon them.

I can be open about my sexual orientation at work without fear of reprisal in terms of job promotion, loss of job, or be accused of negatively affecting the work climate.

I can bring my partner to work related parties and events and be seen as promoting a positive familial climate.

I can get paid leave from work and/or condolences when grieving for the death of a long term partner.

My friends can be seen with me without being afraid of being labeled by others.

I can go apartment or house hunting with my partner without fear of reprisal.

I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my sexual orientation most of the time.

I can avoid spending time with people who look upon my sexual orientation with repulsion, hatred, loathing, or even pity.

I can publicly hold hands, kiss, or otherwise express affection to my loved one without fear of harassment or attack.

I can express myself sexually without the fear of being prosecuted for breaking the law.

My romantic and emotional intimacies have not been reduced to being based upon an act of sex.

I can go wherever I want and know that I will not be harassed, beaten, mugged, or killed because of my sexual orientation.

I can talk about my sexual orientation without people thinking that it is abnormal, unnatural, a crime against God or Nature, or that I am a freak.

I have never been accused of being “disgusting,” of flaunting my sexuality, or of being obsessed with sex for sharing romantic experiences.

I can expect my family to include me and my partner at family events, occasions and gatherings.

I can be pretty sure I will not be denied the right to marry whomever I choose to.

I need not fear emotional and financial truncation from my family because of my sexual orientation.

If I decide to adopt a child, I am perfectly certain that my sexual orientation will not be an issue of concern; or that I will be seen as influencing a child towards a particular sexual orientation.

I can be pretty sure that I can raise, adopt, and teach children without people believing that I am a child molester or will force them into my sexual orientation.

I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to our familial existence in positive ways.

I can raise my children without fear of state intervention because of my sexual orientation.

I can be pretty sure that my children will not be made fun of, ridiculed, or harassed because of who raises them.

I can approach my medical doctor and be open about my health and illnesses without fear of being judged or denied service.

I can approach the legal system, social service organizations, and government agencies without fearing discrimination because of my sexual orientation.

I can join the military and be open about my sexual orientation.

I can belong to a religious organization or denomination of my choice and know that I will not be condemned or denounced by the religious leaders and the members because of my sexual orientation.

I can be close friends with people who do not share my sexual orientation.

I can teach from pre-school through high-school without fear of being fired any day.

I can teach about lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender or intersex people without being seen as having “a bias” because of my orientation, or of forcing a “homosexual or personal agenda” on students.

I can easily find academic courses and institutions that give attention to people of my sexual orientation.

I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling tied in and accepted, rather than isolated, outnumbered, held at a distance, or feared.

I can worry about homophobia without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

I have the right to inherit jointly-owned property when my partner passes away.

I can receive tax breaks, health and insurance coverage, and spousal legal rights through being in a long term relationship.

I can get auto and homeowners’ insurance policies at reduced rates with my partner.

I have the right to visit my partner in the hospital and intensive care and make important medical decisions for him/her.

I can legally sponsor my partner to live in the United States who is not a US citizen or Permanent Resident.

I can expect that most social institutions will validate me by social gestures such as nurture, support, and the usual celebratory cards, emails, and phone calls that celebrate who I am and my relationship to another person.

I don’t have to constantly explain that I am not “a pedophile.”

I have never been asked if I am heterosexual because I had a bad homosexual experience.

I have never been accused of hating women because I am married to a man.

Shiva Subbaraman, University of Maryland

WHAT IS HETEROSEXUAL PRIVILEGE?

I Have Heterosexual Privilege If……

HOMO-BI-TRANS-PHOBIA
More Prejudice & Discrimination

OVERCOMING HOMOPHOBIA & HETEROSEXISM

What can I do about homophobia and heterosexism?

WHAT IS HETEROSEXUAL PRIVILEGE?

I Have Heterosexual Privilege If……

HOMO-BI-TRANS-PHOBIA More Prejudice & Discrimination

OVERCOMING HOMOPHOBIA & HETEROSEXISM What can I do about homophobia and heterosexism?

HOMO-BI-TRANS-PHOBIA
More Prejudice & Discrimination

OVERCOMING HOMOPHOBIA & HETEROSEXISM

What can I do about homophobia and heterosexism?