The Evolution of Homophobia and Homosexuality | How to stop Homophobia?

Throughout the years humankind has suffered from a disease, a disease which is so deadly that people don’t even realise it’s killing millions and even if they do they just don’t care.

Hate, hate is that deadly disease. Anything unfamiliar or anything we don’t identify with or anything which is beyond our understanding we choose to hate. Even though it has cost us our friends and families we continue to not let go of that hate. This hate takes many forms, a few of which are discrimination, racism, sexism, fascism, transphobia, biphobia, homophobia etc. It’s saddening to know that these have been in our world throughout history.

What is homophobia and homosexuality?

Homosexuality is sexual and romantic attraction between same sex individuals. homosexuality in men is commonly reffered to as being “gay” and in women as “lesbianism”.

The actual definition of Homophobia is discomfort, hate or intolerance towards people who identify as gay, lesbian or people with homosexual sexual orientation. Transphobia and Biphobia are very similar to homophobia except transphobia is projected to transgender people while biphobia is intolerance towards bisexual people.

What is Internalised Homophobia?

Growing up we have always been indirectly told that homosexual is something which is not for us to be, like its a distinct community which doesnt affect us and is only a part of our conversation when we need to make “adult” jokes. Internalised homophobia is a product of this ignorance.

Internalised homophobia is when you are intolerant to people with same-sex attraction but yourself feel attracted towards same-sex people. These people end up internalising and repressing their desires and blaming themselves for not being “the way they should be”.

A survey conducted in 2003 in Northern Ireland to understand the needs of LGBT people showed that the average age when men realised their sexual orientation was 12 but the age when they came out was 17. The 5-year gap can be termed as internalised homophobia.

Internalised homophobia can hinder your mental health in more ways than one:

Being in complete denial
Questioning your self worth and your sanity
Trying to change your sexual orientation
Being intolerant towards another member of LGBTQ+ community
Marrying someone from another sexual orientatiton to be accepted in the community
Being abusive
Obsessive thinking
Being contemptuous and scared of the coming out process
Feeling lonely and repressed

How has Homosexuality evolved?

The first-recorded same sex marriage was in the reign of Augustus in Roman Empire in the 27th BCE. Homosexuality in the East Asia same-sex love has been mentioned since the beginning of recorded history.

The early writings of Plato have been in praise of homosexual practices while his later writings seem to advocate its prohibition. During Antiquity homosexuality was condemned and considered as sinful but in the Renaissance, cities in Europe which were centres of art and wealth were also popular for the widespread prevalence of same-sex relationships there.

Research on the Riddle of Man-Manly Love is a set of 12 tracts published by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in Late Modernity. He spoke in the defence of homosexuality when he requested the repeal of Ant-Homosexual Laws in the Congress of German Jurist and became the first gay person to publicly defend homosexuality.

In 19th and 20th century many psychologists studied homosexuality considering it to be a form of illness. The American association coined a term “ego-syntonic homosexuality” for the people who were content with their homosecuality. More significant works are :

Psychopathia Sexualis by Richard Von Krafft-Ebing was one of the first works on homosexuality and envoked anger from the church. The book concluded that homosexuality was a mental illness caused by degraded and psychologically hindered heredity. The book, in its list of sexual perversions included masturbation, sado-masochism and “lust murder”. The book is famous for coining the terms “sadism” and “masochism”. The book is the representation of the ill-concieved notion of homosexuality in that era.

The Kinsey Reports: This research was led by psychologist Alfred Kinsey and included two books, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and , Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). The research found that homosexuality was most prevelant among adolescents and around 30% of subjects- adult american males- had engaged in some homosexual activity. The second book was mostly interview based and therefore was criticised for being not reliable.

What are the Gay Rights Movements?

Throughout history many sections of society have not just accepted homosexuality but have also fought for the rights of people who have been unfairly discriminated for belonging to the homosexual community. These movements have successfully shown us how freedom is just limited to a certain section of society and the people who choose to be different from society are considered pariahs, peculiar and are unaccepted in this limited spectrum of “normal”.

The Homophile Movement (1945-69) which began after the world war is the first organised movement against homophobia followed my Gay Liberation Movement (1960s-70s) which birthed to concept of “Gay Pride”.

The contemporary movement is termed as the LGBTQ+ movement which not just aspires to achieve equality for homosexual people but also people belonging to any and every sexual orientation ranging from bisexual to queer.

How did India legalise LGBTQ+ ?

Section 377 of India dating back to 1861 was the law which criminalised any homosexual activity which was untouched until 2009. The legal liberation of the LGBTQ+ community started to take a positive haul in July 2008 when the court held against a PIL of 2002 that conducting a gay rally was nothing unusual or at all offensive. In 2009 in the case of Naz Foundation vs. National Capital Territory of Delhi the court, although not fully decriminalising Section 377, struck down a lot of its constituents.

An inspiring advocate of Gay Rights in our country is parliament member Mr. Shashi Tharoor who twice- December, 2015 and March 2016- introduced a Private Member Bill in the Lok Sabha proposing decriminalising of Section 377 but was defeated with a majority not in his favour.

Finally in September, 2018 the Supreme Court passed a judgement decriminalising the ancient and orthodox law and hence legalising LGBTQ+ community in India.

While the legal system in India has evolved its mindset majority of homosexual people still hesitate in coming out or even accept their homosexuality and become a victim of internal homophobia. We as a society need to learn that although a community with its rules, ideologies and opinions is necessary for nation building a society should not pose as an obstruction to a person’s freedom. We need to differentiate between having an opinion and being hateful towards others.

In what ways is brutality towards LGBTQ+ projected?

A survey conducted by Swasti Health Centre across 5 Indian states showed that 52% gay men without peer support experience violence. According to the survey more than half of the gay men suffering from emotional and physical abuse were still living with their parents afraid to come out of the closet. The study conducted between April and October in 2015 in the Southern states of India showed out of 8,459 respondents 14% have faced some kind of emotional violence, 8.9% sexual violence and 9% physical violence. 2,795 incidents of violence were reported from a total of 1,762 people who were interviewed giving an average of 1.6 attacks per person.

Brutality like this is not just limited to India or just projected by adults, in 2016 in Australia a gay teenager Tyrone Unsworth killed himself after being incessantly bullied at his school his bullying reached its grim climax when his jaw was struck with a fence by another boy. In 2021, in Croatia during a gay pride parade in Zagreb marchers were assaulted and the Rainbow flag was burned as a display of anti-LGTBQ+ sentiments.

These are just a few incidents of brutality, a study shows that LGBTQ+ people are nearly 4 times more likely to be victims of violence than non-LGBTQ+ people. It is important to realise that the security you may feel as a straight person is just an illusion because freedom is indivisible, one person’s oppression is tied to another person’s illusion of freedom and it is impossible to be free or secure when your mind is still latching on to hate.

How to stop Homophobia?

Although homophobia is the name given to intolerance of the homosexual community it is inaccurately named. Phobia suggests a condition of irrational fear but homophobic people are not irrationally fearful of the homosexual community they are irrationally hateful of it. Calling the spread of nonsensical hate as “phobia” may suggest that being homophobic is an opinion you choose to have but no having an opinion is liking ketchup on your fries or not, having an opinion is if you prefer dark chocolate or milk chocolate having an opinion is not “preferring” to be homophobic, being homophobic is just being insecure and hateful about people that you dont completely identify with.

Because we live in such a conservative society that homophobia is rooted within majority of us without even realising it, even if we accept LGBTQ+ community sometimes unintentionally we may say things or do things which are homophobic for example the common usage of phrase, “that’s so gay” may seem like a joke but it is just stereotyping and giving the word “gay” a negative connotation. More such instances are:

Like treating homosexual and queer people as seperate and belonging to a different species of sorts.
Being extra conscious about what we say and do while being in company with homosexual people and completely dismiss the person’s sexual orientation.
Making jokes or using phrases that might seem normal but are homophobic in nature
Completely associating the person with his/her sexual orientation

If we want to successfully win the battle against homophobia we need to stop being unconsciously unaware of the things surrounding us and make an effort in accepting and embracing people as who they are.

How to reach out and to whom?

The incidents of violence, depression and suicide prevalent amongst the LGBTQ+ community may decrease with peer support and there are many organisations which offer that so if you’re unsure about your sexual orientation or are scared to come out you can safely contact any of the organisations and confide in them with confidence:

1. Queerythm

Queerythm is a registered community-based organisation working for the welfare of the LBGTQ+ community. It is a helpline which can be reached on 9745545559 in Malyalam, English and Tamil.

2. Naz Foundation

The Naz Foundation is one of the leading organisations working to free India from the stigma surrounding the LGBTQ+ community and causes relating to people with HIV/AIDS. The foundation was the one which filed the petition against Section 377. They have made efforts in eradicating homophobia by holding sessions to make people aware about LGBTQ+ community and teaching people coexistence.
Website: https://www.nazindia.org/

3. Nazaria

Nazaria is a queer feminist resource group which was established in 2014. They proclaim to consciously challenge the binary framework of gender and look beyond. Their mission is to make the LGBTQ+ community visible through the lens of society.
Website: https://nazariyaqfrg.wordpress.com/contact/

Conclusion

The freedom of all the people is intertwined and unless everyone gets liberated from all bias -sexual orientation, caste, reed, race, gender, discrimination, etc- each and every one of us will remain enslaved, some enslaved under the mask of the oppressed and some as the oppressor.