Goodbye, homophobia

But not in the way that we’d like to see it go.

Recently the Associated Press announced the word “homophobia” has got to go, along with “Islamaphobia.” The online AP Stylebook has officially added language stating writers and editors should not use “phobia” words such as “homophobia” and “Islamophobia” in “political or social contexts.”

The grounds?

Editors think the inclusion of “phobia” relates to mental illness. Thus “homophobia” is “just off the mark,” as AP deputy standards editor Dave Minthorn told Politico.
The AP always strives to report in a neutral fashion, but is that reasoning enough to back this change?

The AP’s rationale might be alright for Merriam-Webster and friends, but the fact is “homophobia” has entered the public sphere and been adopted by our general culture as “someone who fears and/or doesn’t like homosexuals.”

Etymology and intense dissection of the word doesn’t matter because we have already created a cultural meaning. We understand the word and need it for argument’s sake.
What might be even more detrimental to the argument is that George Weinberg, the man who coined the word in 1972, was a psychologist. He felt comfortable saying, and had research backing the idea, that there is a legitimate fear of homosexuals.

Extreme cases of “anti-gayness,” which is what the AP is going to start encouraging, such as members of Westboro Baptist Church can only be described as homophobia. They would never let a gay person touch them. They carry around signs to distance themselves from any part of homosexual culture and named their website “godhatesfags.com.”

That’s fear.

Being anti-gay does not begin to cover Westboro.

Essentially the AP is helping the world go soft on bigots, which might be “without bias,” but that doesn’t make it right.

In fact, eliminating the word creates a masking effect and gets us further into a whirlwind of political correctness. It’ll cause us to be less direct and less accurate about what’s actually happening in the push for equality.

“Homophobia” is a word that has been used throughout the struggle for equality. In a sense, the AP is undoing progress in a field where any loss of progress is a highly slippery slope.

The AP may only be one source making the change, but it’s a highly influential one that may lead to quite the snowball effect.

I know I’ll continue to use “homophobia.” And thank God I’m an opinion columnist so I can say whatever I goddamn please.

­— sjostrow@indiana.edu