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from Social Issues
Gay Psychologist Creates
New Terms for Use in the Social Debate
"Sexual Prejudice" and "Heterosexism" to Replace Older Term, "Homophobia"
July 16, 2004 - University of California Davis Professor Gregory M.
Herek, Ph.D., published "Beyond 'Homophobia': Thinking About Sexual Prejudice
and Stigma in the Twenty-First Century," in the April, 2004, issue of Sexuality
Research & Social Policy.
Dr. Herek also hosts a web site called "Sexual Orientation: Science, Education,
and Policy," which includes a section titled "Attempts to Change Sexual
Orientation."
In his paper on homophobia, stigma, and sexual prejudice, Dr. Herek suggests
that although the term "homophobia" was useful in pushing forward the gay agenda
in our culture, the term may be too limited in its scope today.
Herek describes in detail how the term homophobia was invented in 1965 by Dr.
George Weinberg and later popularized in his writings in the 1970s. According to
Herek, Weinberg helped mainstream the idea of homophobia with the help of two
gay activists, Jack Nichols and Lige Clarke. They first used the term in the
pornography magazine Screw, edited by Al Goldstein. In their article, the
authors used the term homophobia to describe heterosexual fears that others
might think they were homosexual. The authors postulated that "homophobic" fears
limited the experiences of heterosexual males from involvement in poetry, art,
movement, and same-sex touching.
Herek, notes, however, that homophobia is too closely linked with concepts of
fear or psychopathology. He suggests that psychiatrists and psychologists adopt
three new terms to describe hostility toward homosexuality: "sexual prejudice,"
"sexual stigma," and "heterosexism."
He describes sexual prejudice as "negative attitudes based on sexual
orientation, whether their target is homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual.
Thus, it can be used to characterize not only antigay and anti-bisexual
hostility, but also the negative attitudes that some member of sexual minorities
hold toward heterosexuals."
Sexual stigma is defined as "the shared knowledge of society's negative regard
for any nonheterosexual behavior, identity, relationship, or community. The
ultimate consequence of sexual stigma is a power differential between
heterosexuals and nonheterosexuals."
Herek defines heterosexism as "the systems that provide the rational and
operating instructions for that antipathy [against gays]. These systems include
beliefs about gender, morality, and danger by which homosexuality and sexual
minorities are defined as deviant, sinful, and threatening. Hostility,
discrimination, and violence are thereby justified as appropriate and even
necessary."
Updated: 8 February 2008
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