Homophobia

Homophobia refers to fear, dislike ing, and negativity towards homosexuality. The range of how much negativity someone a homophobe (a person who expresses homophobia) has toward homosexuality varies from person to person. Some people can mildly dislike it, or let out some casual blink-and-you'll-miss it homophobia now and then, and there are others who despise it and will be very vociferous about their views.

Homophobia includes discriminating against, bullying, targeting, attacking/harassing, killing, torturing, using slurs against gay people, and much more. It can be expressed in many different kinds of language and phrases (for example, using "gay" as an insult, which will sound something like, "That's gay!" or "You look gay like that!"). Homophobia, is, unfortunately, still present in the world today. In more developed countries, homophobia is less of a problem, but it still exists in debates, hate crimes, etc.

Some people are raised to be homophobic, and others are raised in friendly, welcoming environments accepting of others' identities. Those who are raised homophobic may end up discovering themselves and/or becoming accepting of others, or they might remain neutral or even dislike homosexuality as well.

Some people are homophobic due to not being educated about the LGBT community, religious beliefs, or what proper schools teach about the community. Some schools such as the extremely serious Christian and Catholic schools teach that homosexuality is a sin, which will likely cause homophobia, especially internalized homophobia in LGBT+ people.

The hunting down of homosexuals comes a long way. People would dislike the idea of same-sex love and would proceed to kill, torture, and target homosexual individuals or anyone they thought to be homosexual. Today, same-sex marriage is more accepted in more parts of the world, but there are still nations out there who ban sexual activity and love between two people of the same sex.

Internalized Homophobia
Internalized homophobia is when a person that experiences attraction to people of the same sex (gays/lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals, etc) reject their own sexuality and begin to constantly try to convince themselves that they're "doing something wrong" and might be very vocal about these feelings in an attempt to "suppress" them. It can be very harmful to the person and end up hurting them even more.

Internalized homophobia is common in same-sex-loving people raised in strict or religious households where homosexuality is considered wrong, unnatural, or a sin.

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