Society’s Key of Homophobia

Society’s Key of Homophobia

Have you ever been scared about being yourself in front of strangers, or even love ones? Imagine being someone who is not accepted, because they loved someone as the same gender as them, or they are not their ‘assigned’ gender. About 19% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adults say there is ‘a lot of social acceptance’¹. Yet, 42% of LGBT youths say the community they live in is not accepting of LGBT people². Is there really acceptance of LGBT community in our society, or is this society still controlling people by homophobia? Reading this may shed some light on this problem in society in our country, America, with the LGBT+ communities. Yes, some will agree the LGBT+ are welcome in our society. That people are now more acceptable towards this certain topic. By ending this false cover over people’s eyes, society will fall. In this paper, there will be topics such as the history on society has been calling ‘gay’ in the past, what homophobia is, and the trouble it has cause. Then about the violence caused by homophobia, and how LGBT teens are treated.

When it comes to the the teen life of the LGBT, 25% of LGB youth have been physically attacked, because of their sexual orientation, and 55% of Transgender youths for their gender expression³. Sometimes when they are not accepted by their families, teens will be kick out to the street. There are about 1.6 million to 2.8 million, and 20 to 40 percent of the homeless youth population who consider themselves gay or transgender, compared to only 5 to 10 percent of the overall youth population⁴. Yet, they are not welcome home since they are ‘homosexual’, or a freak.

Until the 19th century, having sexual intercourse with the same gender was referred to sodomy after the story in the Bible in Genesis Chapter 19 verse 1 through 8 of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was mostly towards intercouse between men. It was condemned, and the punishment if caught was death. The word homosexual was not used until a Hungarian writer and journalist by the name of Karl Maria Kertbeny wrote his article about homosexuality. Homosexuality took place of sodomy in the 19th century., which in turn in the future leads to homophobia.

Homophobia, according to the Anti-Defamation League, is the hatred, or fear of homosexuals. Homophobia can be found in all people. It makes every one of us wonder, how did homophobia start? There is no real evidence on when it started, but society might have played a part of it. At the same time, society would have not been if there were not people sharing the same laws, or traditions. Homophobia leads people to violence and to harm what society fears will ruin their perfect picture of a traditional,or heteronormative life.

Society plants fear and hatred into people to take matters into their own hands, which sometimes lead to violence. In which some actions might lead to death of the person that sets the alarm of society’s perfect picture. Some acts of hate crimes include the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998⁵, or in 1997, when bomb exploded in a gay bar in Atlanta, Georgia, injuring 5 people⁶. The murder of Mercedes Williamson, a 17- year-old transgender, who was murder on May 30th, 2015, was not label as a hate crime since the investigation is still underway⁷. Those were some of the accidents that happen, some years back, some even close to today. Yet, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Program’s 2013 report of hate violence was 2,0001 incidents, which was just a slight decrease from the report of 2012. Luckily this year, the report of hate violence lowered; a significant 32% decrease from the 2,001 total incidents reported in 2013, about 1,359 incidents of anti-LGBT violence in 2014⁸.

It brings back the question; is homosexuality accepted in society? It might be hard to change some people’s minds on the topic. Remember, society has taught sodomy is wrong and should be shunned. It also has put homophobia into people to stop them from seeing ‘gay’ people as people. If people could join together, they might be able to throw off the old rules of society, there might be not as much violence as in the past. Leaving with one question. If you were a teen, who was part of the LGBT+ community, would society accept you now?

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