Poll on homophobia

No. Look at what we put specifically towards racism. We have Black History Month, affirmative action, and scorn anyone who expresses hate or disdain for other races. However, it still affects us every day.

People cannot deal with differences. Until something extreme happens to our ability to think and perceive, there will be conflicts like it.

 

I don't necessarily think it will take a lot of effort, just a lot of time. Old generations have to die off for homophobia to really disappear. Not sure though if it'll ever completely disappear since it will always be a minority and minorities are pretty often always discriminated against in some way.

 

I can't say yes or no because I don't know what the future holds so I hit maybe and I don't know.

 

I voted no (with a lot of effort). Lots of people will (and already) try to get rid of homophobia/homophobes. But everyone has their beliefs, and there will always be people who feel LGBT isn't "right".

 

Just like racism, it will always be there.

Whether it is talked about or hidden or kept from being spoken, it is there.

As long as humans have the ability to hate.........it will be there.

 

I say yes, but only if we really charge forward and strive to make it go away. The problem with racism is that neutral people tend to end up as the majority, so nothing gets done, and therefore not getting rid of racism, but letting it exist in a different way.

It can go away. It can get better.

But only if we make it so.

 

I voted yes, with a lot of effort.

My political view has always been that sexism, racism, homophobia and transphobia will never end until they are made unsafe. The view that discrimination and classification-based violence goes away because of education alone, magically sprinkling loving kindness everywhere is flatly ahistorical.

Homophobia can and must be annihilated, but that can only happen unless we apply considerable amounts of coercion to the situation.

~ Adrienne

 

Not to bust anyone's bubble but homophobia isn't necessarily the biggest problem in the world. We have a ton of stuff to fix that affects EVERYBODY before we can start really putting this on the burner.

 

I reject that reasoning out of hand.

Many social problems can and must be fought simultaneously.

 

I'm not talking about just social problems.

 

Okay? But somebody was curious and made this the topic of the thread. No need to derail it.

 

That's fine, and I think I know where you're going with this. It's extremely likely that I have great respect and concern for whatever it is you're thinking about and that I have sympathies with you.

However, purportedly non-social problems are essentially reduceable to social problems, inasmuch as a social approach is required to remediate them. Consider for example climate change or the US labor economy. Both of these are problems that appear not to cut along lines of race/class/gender and are therefore not labeled "social," but they still have impacts felt by everyone.

In order to build effective movements to address these problems, it will be necessary to bring people together. And telling people that their struggles can't be addressed at the same time because it's not the literal most important thing on the planet is not an effective way to build social movements.

If you'd like, when I have more time, I could put together something for you to show one particular example; namely, the US labor movement owes its ultimate failure to refusals to engage with and fight racism.

 

I guess

 

This reminds me of:

Skip to 1:00 and watch that part with dialogue until 1:30 and you will see my point. "Will humanity ever attain such purity?"
Yunalesca Scene

 

Even if it does go away, it sure won't be soon. And it won't be world wide. But it will get better, I'm sure of it. And there'll be less and less homophobic people.

 

Hate and fear of what people don't understand will never go away.

It may become less prominent though.

 

I voted yes, with a lot of effort. But I'm aware that it may not go away completely (so perhaps I should have voted no ). In certain places, it will go easier than in other places. =) But I think it is possible.

 

Ugh, this thread is so depressing...

I don't think homophobia's going anywhere anytime soon. Blatant, outright homophobia will probably be mostly gone and laughed at/frowned upon sometime within our lifetimes, but the more subtle forms of homophobia will still remain. And unfortunately, these subtle forms of homophobia can be just as harmful (and in some cases even more harmful) than the blatant forms of homophobia and they're more difficult to tackle.