How Has Homophobia Become a Witch Hunt Essay - 1092 Words

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, homophobia is the irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Much like a witch hunt, homophobia targets and seeks out individuals, gay or straight, and persecutes them based on ignorance, and further more if one cannot provide solid proof of his or her innocence. (Hughes) It is the fuel behind many hate crimes and discrimination. Some claim that homosexuality is a disease. If this statement is true, couldn’t we all simply begin to call in â€Å"queer† to work and school when we won’t be present? (Avert) Homophobes provide numerous reasons, which they view extremely valid, to back up their hatred. â€Å"It’s not natural† – a weak argument. Biologists frequently†¦show more content†¦Religious standpoints provide colossal amounts of fuel to the debate. With Christians chanting â€Å"God made Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and Steve,† we can note that the REAL fear is the fear of what they don’t understand. How is it that it is so unnatural? Unbeknownst to them, homosexuality does occur in nature, does that mean that animals have sinned too, and are damned to suffer an eternity in Hell? Or is it that animals can be excluded from this debate, simply because they aren’t human beings? Religious backgrounds contribute enormous hatred toward gay communities, and usually create bias. â€Å"The worlds sacred texts are silent on the question of gay marriage, as it was not really an issue when they were written. However, those same texts do have strong opinions on homosexuality itself.†(Waldman) Hatred is actually fueled by a variety of things. But the real reasons aren’t what homophobes list. Strong religious beliefs, little/no contact with lesbians and gays, and reporting no feelings of homosexuality or homosexual experiences can cause a person to be homophobic. They view it as an â€Å"us versus them† debate, thinking that homosexual rights will come at an expense to the straight society; that gay marriage will interfere with straight marriage. This is an erroneous claim. This also leads into a fear of loss of control, and the threat of one’s world view, fearing differently lived lives threaten their individual freedoms. This, however, isShow MoreRelatedFilm Star Wars : Episode I - The Phantom Menace1505 Words   |  7 PagesPhantom Menace, Liam Neeson is quoted as saying, â€Å"Your focus determines your reality.† In the context of Salem, Massachusetts, this means that if one focuses on witches and witchcraft, their reality will then become witches and witchcraft. This is exactly what happened during the Salem Witch Trials during the late 1690’s, as immortalized in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The small Puritan colony became so engrossed with fear of the Christian Devilâ„ ¢ that they began to suspect their own neighbors, andRead More War Creates Social Division, Not Cohesion Essay5403 Words   |  22 Pagesis based upon the assumption that during a time of crisis, such as a war, people will come together out of the necessity to survive. This belief that the masses unite, neglecting prior dispositions towards one another while opposing a common enemy, has been fairly prominent throughout history. The Second World War, the Cold War, and the Gulf War will be used as examples to research the assumption that social cohesion is a result of warfare. I will argue that warfare, opposed to popular belief, causesRead MoreNew World Order in Conspiracy Theory13987 Words   |  56 Pagesalso in part to the basic underlying apocalyptic millenarian paradigm, which fed the  Cold War  and the  witch-hunts  of the  McCarthy period.[13] In his  11 September  1990  Toward a New World Order  speech to a joint session of the  U.S. Congress, President  George H. W. Bush  described  his objectives for post-Cold-War global governance  in cooperation with  post-Soviet states: Until now, the world we’ve known has been a world divided—a world of barbed wire and concrete block, conflict and cold war. Now, we can