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stacis-leak.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
trans2007-07-02 04:23 pm
stacis-leak.livejournal.com) wrote in trans2007-07-02 04:23 pm
Entry tags:
Phobia... or just hate?
Homophobia, and Transphobia, as a words conjure up all the wrong images. A phobia as a fear, implies that the person who has the phobia is a victim, one to be pitied, that homophobia is something suffered.
But most people with a phobia try to get it cured, by hypnotherapy, or exposure to the think they're scared of. Those who are too scared just avoid the thing they fear, by avoiding situations where they may encounter their fear.
Indeed, if you listen to most homophobes and transphobes, they will place themselves as victims. The hotelier who was against the recent changes that would force him to provide rooms for gay couples, because it infringed upon his religious freedoms (what with the bible being anti-gay and all in his view). The folk in America who say homosexuality is corrupting national morals. Those who say homosexual marriage would destroy the sanctity of marriage. The people scared that trnassexuals are trying to trick them into changing their sexual orientation.
It's always the homo/transphobes' morals being attacked in these stories.
When in actuality, it's usually people in the LGBT community who are physically attacked by homophobes themselves. Be it homophobic bullying in schools, the often brutal murders of LGBT folk at the hands of otherwise law abiding citizens, and in some countries, the following aquittal of the aforementioned murderers on the premise that encountering someone of an unexpected sexuality or biology is a perfectly reasonable explanation for entering a sudden murderous rage.
I really do get to wondering why then we still use this term Homophobia, Transphobia, Xenophobia, the fear of people who are different.
It's one thing to fear something, but when you fear something and you encounter it, you usually back away, maybe lash out once. The responses of these so called 'phobia' is to enter into systematic violence. I heard a story a while back about a gay guy who was tortured for a week and left to die in a field. Is that a fear response? It doesn't sound like a fear response to me. In fact, a lot of cases where the gay panic/trans panic defence was used often involved not just a single act of violence but utter mutilation of the victims, followed by mutilation of their character in the press. In a lot of cases the supposed sudden burst of fear involves calling several friends, whom presumably weren't so shaken, to come and help out in the beating.
These are not the actions of someone too scared to rationalise their actions. Call me cynical but in my childhood, the kids who pulled the legs off of spiders were generally not arachnophobic.
I was arachnophobic and I just ran away. I don't have any problem with people running away, that's their own issue to deal with. But the H/T-phobes don't run away, they just attack, legally, culturally, physically, through the media and through politics.
We need a new word, one which sums up not fear, but the raw hatred these people have for us, because I for one am sick of being demonised.
But most people with a phobia try to get it cured, by hypnotherapy, or exposure to the think they're scared of. Those who are too scared just avoid the thing they fear, by avoiding situations where they may encounter their fear.
Indeed, if you listen to most homophobes and transphobes, they will place themselves as victims. The hotelier who was against the recent changes that would force him to provide rooms for gay couples, because it infringed upon his religious freedoms (what with the bible being anti-gay and all in his view). The folk in America who say homosexuality is corrupting national morals. Those who say homosexual marriage would destroy the sanctity of marriage. The people scared that trnassexuals are trying to trick them into changing their sexual orientation.
It's always the homo/transphobes' morals being attacked in these stories.
When in actuality, it's usually people in the LGBT community who are physically attacked by homophobes themselves. Be it homophobic bullying in schools, the often brutal murders of LGBT folk at the hands of otherwise law abiding citizens, and in some countries, the following aquittal of the aforementioned murderers on the premise that encountering someone of an unexpected sexuality or biology is a perfectly reasonable explanation for entering a sudden murderous rage.
I really do get to wondering why then we still use this term Homophobia, Transphobia, Xenophobia, the fear of people who are different.
It's one thing to fear something, but when you fear something and you encounter it, you usually back away, maybe lash out once. The responses of these so called 'phobia' is to enter into systematic violence. I heard a story a while back about a gay guy who was tortured for a week and left to die in a field. Is that a fear response? It doesn't sound like a fear response to me. In fact, a lot of cases where the gay panic/trans panic defence was used often involved not just a single act of violence but utter mutilation of the victims, followed by mutilation of their character in the press. In a lot of cases the supposed sudden burst of fear involves calling several friends, whom presumably weren't so shaken, to come and help out in the beating.
These are not the actions of someone too scared to rationalise their actions. Call me cynical but in my childhood, the kids who pulled the legs off of spiders were generally not arachnophobic.
I was arachnophobic and I just ran away. I don't have any problem with people running away, that's their own issue to deal with. But the H/T-phobes don't run away, they just attack, legally, culturally, physically, through the media and through politics.
We need a new word, one which sums up not fear, but the raw hatred these people have for us, because I for one am sick of being demonised.