“Homophobia” is not a disease of the mind. It is a stroke of marketing genius. The invention of the term, “homophobia” and it’s derivative adjective “homophobic” was a cultural game-changer like few other terms, phrases or slogans have ever been. Don Draper himself could not have come up with anything better. Consider the power and impact of a phrase that, once adopted as being representative of a legitimate concept, immediately turns predators into prey and, in some contexts, can even turn the former prey into potential predators. These words literally altered the social order and cultural ethos of the most influential country in the modern world. It is easy to take it for granted, but that is a miracle in plain sight.
THE BAD OLD DAYS
Before “homophobia” became a part of our common parlance, it was routine for men who were considered effeminate or thought to actually be gay to be the object of open ridicule from literally every direction. For these men (and for purposes of public assault, we were almost always talking about men) there was no shelter from the storm. They were always the butt of jokes. They were frequently the victims of bullying. They were regularly excluded, marginalized, and ostracized, regardless of the context. To be a guy that was considered a “sissy” or a “punk” meant you would definitely not be allowed to play in any reindeer games. Instead, games would be made featuring your peril, like a popular football derivative game called ‘smear the queer’ for example.
Every ounce of power and leverage in any and every social situation was exclusively in the hands of males who were most clearly gender conforming; whether they were really a manly man or perpetrating a fraud has never really mattered. So much so that a man like Liberace, who might be the gayest cat to ever draw breath on this planet, had to be in a make-believe, concocted, P.R. driven romantic relationship with actress Debbie Reynolds for many years at the height of his powers in the entertainment industry.
Many social scientists and psychotherapists hold that for as long as such records have been kept, the leading cause of depression, self-harm and suicide amongst teenagers was struggles connected with sexuality and sexual identity.
HOW GAYS FLIPPED THE SCRIPT AND CHANGED THE GAME
Sometime in the last decade and a half, the script got flipped so hard that it fell and broke its neck. Successfully labeling prejudice against these men as a mental illness immediately put every man who might be inclined to attack or tease gay men on the defense. Suddenly, they were the ones who needed examination and scrutiny. They were the ones who were operating outside of acceptable societal norms. They were the ones who needed to be corralled and corrected into conforming behavior. The new conforming behavior being acceptance of the sexual self-identity of other people, regardless of how you might actually think or actually feel. Attaching the brand name “homophobic” to generic hatred of gay people made the switch stick.
And regardless of the conservative fever-dreams about reversing the legalization of gay marriage, it ain’t happening. That is the ultimate political suicide mission and even if the craziest Republican Jesus freaks in Congress are ready to start running into gay clubs with bombs strapped to their bodies, the garden variety corporatist conservatives are never going along with that. It is not out of principal (of course not), it is out of expediency. The risk of financial loss and political peril is far too great for any wealth worshiper to buy a ticket to ride that train.
And to put an even sharper point on the marketing genius of the activists formerly known as ‘gays,’ dumping the phrase “gay marriage” and adopting the phrase “marriage equality” was an extension of the rebranding strategy. It is much harder to be against a policy with the word “equality” in it than it is to be against a policy with the word “gay” in it.
And while both professional comedians on stage and amateur comedians in office break rooms have a good ole time cracking wise about the ever-evolving label of the LGBTQ+ community, I am rather sure they don’t care. Because while they joke about the percentage of the alphabet being used, every last one of those jokers knows that their sorry ass will be packing a box and being walked out by building security should they happen to let the word “faggot” or “fairy” escape their lips. Every guy over 40 used those words and many others constantly when he was growing up, and every one of them knows better than to do that shit now. Why? Because no employer can afford to be seen as a safe haven for the homophobic. So if a guy is really not cool working near or around homosexuals, he damned well better pretend that he is. That, my friends, is flipping the script and changing the game.
THE HOMOPHOBIA HUSTLE
And here is the catch: homophobia is not even real. Gay hate, however, is very real. But hating gay people is not a phobia. It is just being an insufferable asshole. Every phobia that is recognized by science and mental healthcare practitioners is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (widely known as the DSM). This is the bible of the psychiatric profession and the top scientists and scholars update it once or twice a decade. Dr. George Weinberg invented the word in the late 60s, with the first appearance on record being in an article in Screw magazine on May 5, 1969. Dr. Weinberg was inspired to invent the term after he described the fearful conduct of some friends who had heard a lesbian had been invited to his dinner party, who were asking him to disinvite her. So he featured the concept of “homophobia” in his 1972 book Society and the Healthy Homosexual.
And in the pages of that book it lay dormant; hibernating for more than three decades until it was revived with vigor in a 2004 article published in the journal Sexuality Research & Social Policy by Dr. Gregory M. Herek. And like a ravenous, ill-tempered grizzly bear, when it woke up from that long slumber, it promptly devoured everything in its path. Today, despite never making it into the DSM, “homophobia” is widely accepted and diagnosed millions of times a day by people of all educational levels- from high school dropouts to Ph.Ds.. The prescribed treatment for homophobia is public shaming and humiliation. It has been highly effective in reducing the outbreaks of homophobic symptoms, and in extreme cases, a steady dosage of economic sanction has been recommended. Very few have demonstrated an immunity to that treatment.
The rise in the social influence of the term proved how powerful the manipulation of language can be, when undergirded by determination and discipline. “Homophobia,” a clear example of how propaganda can be used for good as effectively as it is for evil, is now a part of daily language everywhere in the civilized world. And “civilized world” specifically excludes all nations where it is still legal to execute people over the consensual sex they choose to have.
GETTING PERSONAL
My pragmatism should not be interpreted as cynicism. I admire this deployment of propaganda and I have been a legit ally of the LGBTQ+ community since long before that name was even adopted. And although I wish I could honestly say that my allyship stood on moral grounds, that would only be half of the story. The other half is my own vanity; not just physical vanity, but intellectual vanity. To wit: I am 100% certain that being adversarial to people for their sexual identity is an intellectually inferior position to accepting and embracing people for who and what they are. And I could never accept being inferior. To anybody. At anything. Vanity may not be admirable, but it is quite durable. And it made me a hardcore ally since I was a teenager in the late 80s figuring out my own place in this world.
To me, bigotry was just a bad look. Particularly for guys who enjoyed social advantages in life that they know they did not earn, but that they also knew they would never return, even if they could. Even more so if you happen to be a guy who was just too smart to be into oppression. Stupid motherfuckers, on the other hand, always seemed to be into oppression. The dumber they were, the more they liked it, they loved it, they wanted more of it. They just can’t get enough of seeing other people being put down over being different from the majority. As a young Black man who knew he was a standout in all things, I could never set any example that suggested that bigotry was cool. I knew that shit could never look good on me, so I rejected it with extreme prejudice.
Since I was one of the good guys way back in the day, before it was popular to be an ally of the gay community, I wonder if they might be willing to help a brother out. I can’t help but wonder if Black folks can adopt their strategy to fuel our final push for maximum efficacy. Our engines have stalled, because we all know that “racist” and “racism” have been thoroughly defanged as actionable terms in any meaningful conversation. We need to workshop some actionable language adjustments. Although I recognize the significant differences in structure and in scale, there is a philosophical parallel on the racial front that can be attacked the same way. I’ll throw out the first pitches.
“Blackophobia”? Nah, that sounds dumb. Like a low-budget, campy, blaxploitation flick from the 70s. Hollywood actually made a movie called Blacula about a Black vampire in ’72. Maybe “negrophobia” can work. After all, the term Negro was once favored by our people as an upgrade from being “colored.” Plus it sounds enough like “nigger” without saying it, so it would obviously be catchy. And don’t we want people to haul ass as fast as they can away from the label we hang on those who seek to cement the vestiges of our oppression? So, to any of my talented LGBTQ+ wordsmiths and marketing folks out there, can we get “negrophobia” moving? If we can get half as far with that, as you guys have gotten with “homophobia” we’ll all be big winners.