Homophobia is not a fear of sexuality, but the unknown

A friend of mine was recently walking down the avenue from the Ballymun road into DCU, it was dark and he was alone, when a group of drunk ‘young lads’ began shouting homophobic slurs at him.

Reasonably enough he stopped and asked them to repeat what they had said to his face. They did, a punch was thrown at them, but luckily that is where this story ended.

While I am in no way advocating violence to resolve issues of verbal abuse, the question here is why do people think it is ok to pick on and victimise homosexuals? I’m not saying it should be a taboo issue, it should be subject to satire just like every other aspect of life.

A college publication that jokingly uses the phrase ‘bum chum’, for example, should not be forced to issue an apology especially when no complaints were made. It’s hard to imagine a girl walking down the avenue on her own being subjected to that level of unashamed bullying.

The main reason for that is it is still completely socially unacceptable for a male to harass a female in such a manner, but the other is that girls aren’t as openly judgemental to each other when it comes to life choices.

Some may say that girls are worse, they’re bitchy, but in a situation like this it would have been better for all if those guys hadn’t felt the need to shout what they were thinking in a stranger’s face. What is it in the male psyche that means when they feel uncomfortable it has to result in abusive output?

With a few exceptions (take note at the upcoming drag ball, they will stand out…) most straight males are highly uncomfortable with even the idea of physical contact with another male. Why is this? Girls cross these boundaries all the time and no-one blinks an eye.

Most straight males, however, see intimacy with another man as something so far beyond the realms of reality they won’t take it seriously, and feel the need to lash out before they could possible be accused of agreeing with it.

So many preconceptions still exist about homosexuals and the fact that they receive so much media coverage does not help. Take the recent furore surrounding a male GAA player’s coming out, and the talk brought up after DCU was listed on a ‘gay’ scouting website.

If these stories had concerned females, or straight couples, I don’t think half of that attention would have been afforded to them. Where does the line get crossed? When do we start resorting to other measures to prevent homophobia, and when do we stop putting too much emphasis on the issue?

Homophobia is an irrational fear, and most of the discrimination we see today isn’t really to do with fear of sexuality, its fear off something different or the unknown. Today’s men need to man up.