The article “How Homophobia Hurts Everyone” by Warren J. Blumenfeld throws light on the fact that homophobia exists in this society and that each individual, irrespective of their sexual identity, is adversely affected by it. To explain this, the author cites his own childhood experience when he was harassed by his ‘normal’ peers for being ‘different’. Years of humiliation that continued right until his college days, inadvertently drew him apart from his younger sister, Susan. While the author was affected by the teasing, his attractive, smart, ‘normal’ sister, as he came to understand much later when the two spent some time together in a hospital room, suffered no less. Indeed, because her brother was constantly taunted by friends, Susan feared that she would also be targeted and chose to distance herself from him by joining hands with the tormentors. Thus, due to homophobia both the oppressor i.e. Susan and the oppressed i.e. Blumenfeld lost what could have otherwise been a beautiful sibling relationship. The author states that his case is not an isolated one; rather situations of this kind pervade through the society and need to be addressed at the earliest in order to prevent the dominant and the target groups from becoming losers (Blumenfeld 268).
According to Blumenfeld, homophobia affects the LGBT by stereotyping them as inferior to the heterosexuals, discriminating them, subjecting them to violence, silencing them, and preventing their integration into the general community (268). The heterosexuals are harmed because homophobia prevents them from forming close relations with individuals of their own gender, confines individuals to roles that are gender-based, curbs self-expression, and pushes them to target and demean others. It also forces lesbians to marry partners of the opposite sex to hide their true identities, thereby creating undue stress on those involved in the marriage (Blumenfeld 271). However, if the heterosexuals and homosexuals join hands, Blumenfeld says that it is possible to get rid of the pollution named homophobia, which will ultimately unify the society and make life a lot easier for both groups of people (275).
Four Interrelated Levels at which Homophobia Operates
The four interrelated levels at which homophobia operates are personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural levels. At the personal level, homophobia makes people prejudiced against the LGBT, pushes them to believe that they must regard lesbians as psychologically unsettled and inferior, and encourages them to pity or hate the latter because they behave in a manner that contradicts nature’s laws. At the interpersonal level, the prejudice caused by personal homophobia gets transformed into discrimination with the dominant groups insulting, and perpetrating violence against the target groups. Interpersonal homophobia pushes people to abandon the homosexuals even if they are known individuals (Blumenfeld 268).
Institutional homophobia refers to the discrimination perpetrated by various institutions such as government bodies, workplaces, and religious and educational organizations. At this level, homophobia promotes policies that do not favor the homosexuals, classifies homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder, and does not provide the LGBT access to benefits such as housing, credit, insurance, and employment. Religious institutions preach against homosexuality thereby strengthening homophobia in the society (Blumenfeld 269). Finally, at the cultural level, homophobia denies homosexuals access to places of social congregation, instills in them a fear of visibility, encourages them to hide their true identity, segregates them socially, and stereotypes them thereby making it all the more difficult for the society to accept the community as a part and parcel of the social fabric (Blumenfeld 270).
How Homophobia Limits Heterosexuals
Off the 12 ways described by Blumenfeld, perhaps the three most significant ways in which homophobia limits the experiences and lives of heterosexuals are by putting pressure on the homosexual to marry, by forcing heterosexuals to ostracize homosexuals, and by distracting everyone from more serious social issues such as poverty, violence, and environmental degradation. Owing to homophobia when a homosexual is forced to marry a heterosexual, usually the former hides his/her true identity from the latter (Blumenfeld 273). While the matrimony harms the homosexual as he/she is entering into the relationship with an individual he/she does not want to live with, the heterosexual is even more affected as he/she enters the relationship without knowing the true identity of his/her partner. Where marriage ought to be a happy union between two people, a wedding of this kind makes the heterosexual feel cheated and miserable. Such unions then end up in unhappy divorces and harm the future of the individuals.
When homophobia pushes the heterosexuals and institutions to oppress the homosexuals, it distracts them from other more pressing social issues such as poverty, illiteracy, crime, drug addiction, and access to education (Blumenfeld 274). Governments, religious institutions, educational organizations and heterosexuals only waste their time in acting against those who merely have a different sexual preference. While the sexual preference of a homosexual ought to be entirely his/her own concern, it is unnecessarily blown up into a social problem by oppressive individuals and institutions. Instead, if these people were to focus on the red-button social issues that affect all individuals living in this society at large, it would do a lot more good for the entire world. Indeed, by focusing more on the social problems, individuals and institutions can lend a helping hand to the truly oppressed- the poor, the illiterate, drug addicts, and criminals, transform them into better human beings, and thus, make the society a better place to live in.
Works Cited
Blumenfeld, Warren J. “How Homophobia Hurts Everyone.” Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. Eds. Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Castaneda, R., Hackman, H. W., Peters, M. L., and Zuniga, X. (Eds.). London: Routledge, 2000. 267- 275.
