Is Homophobia a disease

I think it's a mental illness that can be treated with exposure and education.

 

nevermind

 

Its an opinion. Much like any other opinion that a certain type of person is inferior. Its caused by indoctrination and in many cases, a lack of introspection or critical thinking. As for whether its a choice, well, I wouldn't really describe it as one. People don't hold certain views because they decide to, they hold them because their experiences lead them to do so. And if other experiences were to come into that person's mind, then their opinions can change. And they do, often.

Think about your deeply held beliefs, whatever they might be. Do you choose to hold them? Try not holding them... it doesn't really work. Everything you know and have experienced is leading you to conclude that those are the correct beliefs.

 

is this a serious question or are you just trying to get a rise out of everyone?

 

It's something they are taught.

Think about it. When you we're born, we're you inherently afraid of the water, or snakes, or crossing the road without looking both ways? People tell you what you should and shouldn't be afraid of. Some cases are different, where trauma is involved.

Is homophobia a disease? Yes it is. Like any disease, it spreads. People will try to induce fear on anyone. They are spawns of hell, they are unholy, blah blah blah. But we, who are homosexual, bisexual, transgender etc etc... Know who we are, and that we aren't "spawns from hell" We're just like anybody else. We're different, yet human.

 

Disease | Define Disease at Dictionary.com

Definition 3: Any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society.

Yep, it's definitely a disease.

 

I think it's more to do with ignorance, and not understanding what being gay means rather than a disease

 

Yep, phobias are mental disorders, or diseases!

 

Perhaps the APA can list it in the future DSM-6 as a condition and recommend electroshock conversion therapy or maybe simple group therapy. Ah the possibilities :goodevil:

 

It's taught/learnt. Least that's my opinion.

 

This is all good stuff. I would add that it can come into being because a person fears something within themselves, in some cases.

 

Homophobia is about as much a mental disorder as ignorance is. In other words, it's not.

If people are raised to believe that homosexuality is evil, they'll believe it to be evil. It's purely ignorance, not a disorder.

 

I think it is caused by extreme ignorance and bigotry.

 

Homophobia is not a disease. It's not a mental health condition. That's why we need to stop calling it homophobia. It's also not even fear, generally. It's hatred. It's bigotry.

Which is why we need to start calling it what it is: heterosexism.

Yes, the people who are heterosexist have a problem, and they need to fix it, but that's a problem of their character, not mental health.

Ziester Adrian

 

^

THANK YOU. omg. this is EXACTLY WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING! finally, someone agree's

 

I agree with that.

People need to stop pathologizing things just because they don't like them. Thats what they did to us, remember.

 

Amen.

Uhm.. Interesting point. Is ignorance a disease? I guess not.

 

I was half joking with my above point, in case anybody took it too seriously. All humans are born and/or brought up with some sort of prejudice towards something, it's just that most of us are intelligent enough to realise that it's our problem and get over it/at very least never mention it. If everybody has these little prejudices, it can't realistically be classified as a disease, it's just part of the human morphology/psychology. However, is making the choice to act on these prejudices the result of some sort of mental illness? It would take a more psychologically minded person than I to make that sort of judgement.