What's so bad about being homophobic/anti-gay?

I suppose nothing as long as that opinion does not lead someone to being violent towards anyone else.

 

Our thoughts direct our actions in subtle ways. The idea that homophobia is okay so long as it's not violent isn't enough.

Think about the gay guy who can't make friends at school because everyone avoids him. Or the lesbian daughter who sees her straight sister receive the look of love from her mother that she doesn't get anymore. Or the employer who won't hire the guy who just married another guy because he 'won't fit in'. Or the girl whose religious friends delete her from Facebook when she enters a relationship with another girl.

When you've been on the subtle side of homophobia, it becomes clear how someone can hurt you without even realising that they're doing anything wrong. The idea that you can keep prejudice secret is, for the most part, wrong. If you feel such animosity towards gay people in your mind, it'll almost certainly manifest itself in your behaviours eventually.

 

I don't see a problem with people who arnt accepting of lgbt since everyone has their own views and opinions. However, it does get out of hand with people who become violent and descriminant on lgbt. (Which most homophobic people are)

 

Unless you guys talking about real mental issue of someone have a PHOBIA of gay people (like some has phobia of spiders etc), I can't see why you don't see a problem with it..

The problem I see in it (excluding real phobia) is that those people if given the opportunity will do anything against gay people, while we didn't do anything bad to them ... that's hate with no basis and hate without basis is the 1st reason for world wars

 

Depends where you want to come from in terms of your argument.

You could suggest that there is nothing wrong with BEING anti-gay providing that it doesn't affect your actions. So theoretically you could suggest that as long as you don't try and prevent gay people from having the same rights as other people then being anti-gay isn't that bad. You could classify it as being similar to not liking chavs, but not going so far as to think they should be banned from reproducing.

On the other hand, you could say that morally you cannot justify being anti-gay since it is difficult, if it is at all possible, to suggest that there is anything wrong with BEING gay.

 

It's bad because it's looking at a human being as something lesser, something that doesn't deserve love, rights, compassion or respect, all because they fall in love with people of their own gender: a completely harmless and natural thing. It's equally awful to hating and discriminating against someone because they are black or a woman.

 

Fear of gay people gives someone an excuse to commit violence in words and deeds. If you got to know a gay person you would not have anything to fear anymore.

 

I see it very similar to a racial discrimination. Homophobia also involves the belief in differences which acts as a justification for non-equal treatment that is usually associated with prejudice, violence, dislike, discrimination or oppression.

 

-It involves hating people you don't know at all.
-You are discriminating people that just want to be happy.
-Many times homophobic people just refuse to get to know gay people better.
-Many times children are taught to hate just for the sake of it.
-You cannot control wheter if your children are gay or not and you may be hurting them if they are.
-It is a very cruel form of discrimination becuse, sadly gay people may be discriminated by their own family.

I'm sure the list can be way longer.

 

I have a problem with anyone who has a problem with my sexuality. My sexuality hurts no one, and is not inferior to any other, and I won't tolerate the company of someone who doesn't accept me. Furthermore, on a wider scale, homophobic attitudes lead to queer people being (to differing degrees) oppressed. And there is something wrong with that. If these attitudes didn't exist, queer people wouldn't get imprisoned, murdered and executed, and wouldn't have our rights withheld.

 

I think that there is a difference between having an opinion on something and fundamentally impacting on and possibly harming the life of another person.

I am very political. I am left-wing. I am an atheist. I am anti guns and pro healthcare for all and all the other myriad of beliefs and opinions I hold. Many of these differ greatly from other members of EC, let alone all the other people I know and often am friends with in my life (Christians, Muslims, Tories, Lib-Dems, pro-foxhunting, anti-union etc) who all have radically different beliefs to me... The point is, these are my opinions and my beliefs and those are their opinions and their beliefs.

Being gay is not my opinion or my belief - it is a fact of physiology. My being gay has never caused harm to anybody in my society but my society has caused harm to me with its homophobia. I am 28 and never even began to come out until 2013. This is because I knew how those who are 'anti-gay' would affect my life, my existence. How some people would leave my life when/if I came out, how some people would always think of me as 'that lesbian' instead of who I am, how my parents would be sad to think of me living a life of discrimination, that some people would judge if a possible future wife and I had children and worse, judge my children. So, if someone is anti-gay- how are they harmed by my being gay? How are they ever, possibly, more harmed by the simple fact of my sexuality than I am by their (sponsored) prejudice?

There is an awful lot wrong with being 'anti-gay' (or Racist or anti-[any faith]) because it spreads like poison and it tries to legitimise cruelty.

 

Well, my religious homophobic dad is always making remarks about gays that hurt my feelings. I'm religious too.

 

What's so bad about being sexist or racist?

Answer me that and you have your own answer.

 

It represents continuing a conflict that should never be there. To be anti-gay is to be anti-happiness for no reason other than that you think gayness is vaguely "wrong" or just too icky for you to personally partake in.

Peaceful anti-gay opinions aren't the worst things in the world, but their days really are numbered in terms of social acceptability.

 

The thing is you are hating on people for something they have had no choice over!! Racism is frowned upon for the same reason

 

Being anti-gay means to not give your fellow man the equal rights and protections heterosexuals take advantage of daily. They are against marriage equality, income and job protection equality, hate crime legislation, hospital visitation rights, blood donation rights, the whole caboose.

 

I don't know. I can completely understand homophobia and transphobia, and I am completely okay with people not liking lgbtqia people, as long as they don't express opinion in a violent and/or hurtful way towards lgbtqia people.

 

People are "social animals". To develop normally they need to be accepted and treated well by the people close to them. If avoided or treated like some kind of pariah, or specifically abused, they fail to develop in a normal and timely manner, and can become dysfunctional as adults. All you have to do is spend a few hours reading in this forum to see all the REAL problems people have because they are treated differently by homophobes. Even the FEAR of being treated differently or simply being perceived as "different" because of orientation, can hang people up for YEARS, preventing them from establishing adult relationships or familes of their own.

So, to answer your question, what is so bad about it is the effect it has on gay people who depend on or have to interact with people who shun, or disdain, or simply treat gay people like they are some kind of freaks of nature, or worse.