Gayphobia

Gayphobia is the fear, dislike or hatred of gay men or male homosexuality.

Quotes

• There is very clearly a difference in mechanisms between gayphobia and lesbophobia, and this translates into different types of aggression. Where the collective imagination over-sexualizes gay men and exerts strong verbal and physical violence against boys and men who are not considered sufficiently masculine / heterosexual; for women, on the other hand, the assertion of their lesbian identity will be further disqualified, minimized, reduced to a fad, or even sexualized as a prelude to heterosexuality.
  • Pierre Bouvier, Pride march: 'Lesbians are not necessarily found in the speeches of many LGBT associations' (June 2020)

• Gayphobia is a form of homophobia that specifically affects men. Although it is primarily aimed at gay and bisexual men, it can also affect heterosexual men who are perceived as homosexual. Gay men may be targets of physical aggression or devalued by stereotypes linked to feminisation and hypersexualisation.
  • Government of France, 2020-2023 National Action Plan to Promote Equal Rights and Combat Anti-LGBT+ Hatred and Discrimination (2020), p. 13

• However, parallel to this semantic broadening, there has been an inverse movement of lexical differentiation operating at the heart of the concept of homophobia. Because of the specificity of attitudes towards lesbianism, the term lesbophobia has been introduced into theoretic discourses, a term which brings to light particular mechanisms that the generic concept of homophobia tends to overshadow. With one stroke, this distinction justifies the term gayphobia, since much homophobic discourse, in reality, pertains only to male homosexuality. Similarly, the concept of biphobia has also been proposed in order to highlight the singular situation of bisexuals, often stigmatized by both heterosexual and homosexual communities. Moreover, we need to take into consideration the very different issues linked to transsexual, transvestite, and transgender persons, which brings to mind the notion of transphobia.
  • Louis-Georges Tin, The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay & Lesbian Experience, Arsenal Pulp Press, (2008)

See also

• Gay men
• Homophobia

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Discrimination against gay men on Wikipedia