Fighting Homophobia

Fighting Homophobia:

Supporting LGBT College
Students

Purpose of Presentation
• To increase awareness of:
– What sexuality is.
– What sexual orientation is.
– What homosexuality is.
– What sexual fluidity is.
– What same-sex relationships are like.
– What homophobia is.
– What heterosexual privilege is.

• To increase awareness of the impact that anti-gay harassment and
homophobia have on students.
• To create a safe space for people to ask questions about LGBT
issues.
• To discuss how faculty can be better allies for LGBT people in
schools and colleges.

Sexuality
• Sexual orientation is one of four
easily distinguishable components of
sexuality; the other three are:

– Biological sex (the anatomical,
physiological, and genetic
characteristics associated with
being male or female).
– Gender identity (the psychological
sense of being male or female).
– Social gender role (adherence to
cultural norms for feminine and
masculine behavior).

Each Component of Sexuality Exists
Independently as a Continuum:

BIOLOGICAL SEX
male intersex female

GENDER IDENTITY
man two-spirited woman
SOCIAL GENDER ROLE
(gender expression)

masculine androgynous feminine

SEXUAL ORIENTATION
attracted to women bisexual/asexual attracted to men

What is Sexual Orientation?

• According to the American Psychological Association, sexual
orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction
that one feels toward men, women, or both sexes.

– Sexual orientation also refers to a person’s sense of identity
based on these attractions, related behaviors, and
participation in a community of others who share these
attractions.
– These patterns of attraction often arise without any prior
sexual experience. People can be celibate and still know their
sexual orientation.

• Although sexual orientation ranges along a continuum, from
exclusive attraction to the other sex to exclusive attraction to the
same sex, three sexual orientations are commonly discussed:

– Homosexuality is sexual and emotional attraction to people
of the same sex.
– Heterosexuality is sexual and … of the opposite sex.
– Bisexuality is sexual and … of both sexes.

• Kinsey developed a 7-point scale of heterosexual and homosexual
experience.

Rating Description
0 Exclusively heterosexual
1 Mostly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual
2 Mostly heterosexual, more than incidentally homosexual
3 Equally heterosexual and homosexual
4 Mostly homosexual, more than incidentally heterosexual
5 Mostly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual
6 Exclusively homosexual
X Asexual; Non-sexual

What is Sexual Fluidity?
• While the majority of people
experience a stable sexual “Males [people] do not
orientation throughout their life, for represent two discrete
others sexual orientation may be populations, heterosexual
fluid and change over time. and homosexual. The world
Perhaps the degree of sexual is not to be divided into sheep
fluidity among people also ranges and goats. Not all things are
along a continuum. black nor all things white. It is
a fundamental of taxonomy
that nature rarely deals with
• In any case, most people discrete categories…The
experience little or no sense of living world is a continuum in
choice about their sexual each and every one of its
orientation. Sexual orientation aspects.” – Alfred Kinsey
cannot be changed at will.

• Sexual orientation is not
synonymous with sexual behavior
because orientation also includes
feelings and self-concept.

• Prejudice and discrimination
make it difficult for many people
to come to terms with their sexual
orientation identities, so claiming
a lesbian, gay, or bisexual identity
may be a slow process.
Therefore, individuals may or may
not express their sexual
orientation in their behaviors.

Situations Where Sexual Behavior
≠ Sexual Orientation

• Jenny feels "different" growing up –
she’s more interested in women
than men. But her family is fiercely
anti-gay, so she later finds a
boyfriend, marries, has two kids
and a house in the suburbs – until
she meets a nurse named Shelia
and finds herself deeply in love.
Jenny suddenly remembers feeling
“different” as a child...

.....Jenny realizes that she never
loved her husband like she loves
Shelia. In fact, she never felt for any
man what she feels for this woman.
She knows in her heart of hearts
that she is not bisexual – that she is
a lesbian. She realizes that she's
always been a lesbian but has lived
in denial up until now. Does that
mean that she was straight when
she was married and she "turned
into" a lesbian?

• John and Marilyn, both heterosexuals,
decide to indulge in a fantasy in which
he watches her have sex with another
woman and then both women have sex
with him. Does that mean that Marilyn is
now a bisexual simply because she had
sex with another woman one time?

• Jack is in prison. While serving out his
20 year sentence, he has sex with
several different men, but when he gets
out, he never has sex with another man
again. Does this mean he was gay while
in prison and straight before and after
his incarceration?

• Frank goes to a bar and has
an argument with his
boyfriend, Gene. Gene
leaves and Frank is there
alone. He keeps drinking
until he's really drunk. A
woman named Gail comes
into the bar. Gail's lonely
and Frank's drunk, so they
end up going home together
and having sex. Does that
mean he's now bisexual
since he had sex with Gail?

Other Problems with Definitions Based
Solely on Sexual Behavior

• Barring rape and molestation, we always have a choice with respect
to sexual behavior. Therefore, sexual orientation defined by sexual
behavior carries with it the subtle implication that orientation itself is
a choice. Seeing "sexual orientation" and "being gay" as
synonymous, many people "logically" conclude that being gay is a
choice. However, nobody chooses with whom they fall in love, so
nobody chooses their sexual orientation either.

• Definitions based on sexual behavior debase the true nature of
every committed relationship, especially gay ones. A committed
relationship – whether straight or gay – is not simply a sexual
relationship. In the context of a committed relationship, sex is one of
many forms of expression of the love between the two individuals.

• Perhaps a better way to
define sexual orientation is Heterosexual
by whom one “falls in
love” with – that is, whom • able to fall in love with someone only of
the opposite sex
one has enduring, romantic
relationships with.
Homosexual (gay or lesbian)
• Helen Fisher of Rutgers
University has proposed 3 • able to fall in love with someone only of
the same sex.
stages of falling in love –
lust, attraction, and
attachment – each driven Bisexual
by different hormones and
chemicals. • able to fall in love with either men or
women.

“It seems to me that the real
clue to your sex orientation
lies in your romantic feelings
rather than in your sexual
feelings. If you are really
Gay, you are able to fall in
love with a man, not just
enjoy having sex with him.”

– Christopher Isherwood, quoted in
"Christopher Isherwood Interview" with
Winston Leyland (1973), from
Conversations with Christopher Isherwood,
ed. James J. Berg and Chris Freeman
(2001).

Why The Total Number Of Gay People
Can't Be Counted

• Different studies define GLB people
in different ways and researchers
have yet to agree on a common
definition. Is being gay a behavior?
Does an attraction make one gay?
Or, is being gay an identity?

• Only those willing to identify can be
counted. Not all GLB people identify
as such (see first bullet) and not all
GLB persons are willing to admit
their sexual identity, attraction, or
behavior to others, even
anonymously.

• For example, in a randomized
sample (N=35,595) of the 21-
Characteristic Number %
year-old men who were inducted
into the Thai army in May 2011, Sexual behavior:
most defined themselves as
heterosexual, even if they mainly Exclusive MSF 29688 92.9
have sex with men. Bisexual 1930 6.0
Exclusive MSM 339 1.1
– It was conducted no more
than two weeks after Sexual desire:
induction and therefore Sex with women
serving in the army had no 35041 98.6
only
influence on the results. Sex with both
– Men from all provinces in men and women
318 0.9
Thailand were included and
Sex with men
from both urban and rural 180 0.5
only
areas.

Bisexual and
• Among all bisexual and exclusive MSM Number %
exclusive MSM, 83% (N=2271)
identified as heterosexual, Education:
i.e. desiring women only. > 10 yrs 1470 93.4
Even in exclusive MSM, only
21% said they desired men Graduate 104 6.6
exclusively and 31% both Sexual role for sex with men:
men and women, meaning
Top/Versatile 1192 95.1
that nearly half (48%) of men
who had in fact only ever Bottom 62 4.9
had male sexual partners Sex in exchange for money:
said they actually preferred
women. No 1527 69.2
Ever 680 30.8

• The culturally-accepted way of being an MSM in Thailand, at least
outside the urban gay scenes, has tended to be to become a Katoey
(“ladyboy” or transgender). “Out” Kaoteys would likely be exempted
from military service, until 2011 because they had a “mental
disorder”, now changed to “gender identity disorder”. So this survey
would tend to under-represent certain self-identified MSM.

• This study shows the difference between surveying a self-selecting
gay/MSM population – the Bangkok surveys have been conducted
in gay clubs, STI clinics, and cruising areas – and looking at a truly
random sample of Thai men to investigate sexuality.

Just the Facts
• Gay sex does not equal anal sex.
– In a survey published in April 2012 of 14,750 MSM ages 18 to 87, of whom
85.3% identified as homosexual, about 75 percent reported kissing, giving oral
sex, and/or receiving oral sex in their most recent sexual encounters. Only 36
percent reported receiving anal sex and 34 percent reported giving it.

• Homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than
heterosexual men are.

• No legitimate research has demonstrated that same-sex couples are
any more or any less harmful to children than heterosexual couples.

• Homosexual orientation or identity is not caused by childhood
sexual abuse or deficient sex-role modeling by parents.

• LGBT people live just as long as heterosexuals do.

• Gay men were victims of – not collaborators in – the Nazi Holocaust.

• All major professional mental health organizations are on record as
stating that homosexuality is not a mental disorder.
– Higher rates of anxiety, depression, and depression-related illnesses and
behaviors among LGBT people are due to the stress of being a member of a
minority group in an often-hostile society ‒ and not LGBT identity itself.

• Sexual orientation is not chosen, nor can it be changed at will.
– A 2008 Swedish study of twins (the world's largest twin study), which appeared in
The Archives of Sexual Behavior, concluded that "[h]omosexual behaviour is
largely shaped by genetics and random environmental factors.“
– "Reparative" or sexual reorientation therapy has been rejected by all the
established and reputable American medical, psychological, psychiatric, and
professional counseling organizations.

What is Prejudice?
• Prejudice is a negative attitude or feeling toward people
based on a misleading generalization about a group to
which they belong. (Gordon Allport, 1954)

• Prejudices are built into our social institutions, such as
religion, government, electoral politics, education, and the
media.

• We are conditioned by messages from these institutions
about how to see each other, how to relate to one another,
and how to see ourselves – based on race, sex, ethnic or
religious culture, disability, and sexual orientation.

What is Homophobia?
• Homophobia (or sexual prejudice), in general, is a negative attitude
or feeling based on a misleading generalized belief about
lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Allport (1954) defined five ways
that prejudice can be expressed or acted upon:

– Antilocution (name calling, stereotyping)
– Avoidance (defamation by omission, exclusion)
– Discrimination (refusal of service, denial of opportunity)
– Physical Attack (threat of physical violence, murder)
– Extermination (mass assassination, genocide)

• We often overlook the more subtle actions and exclusions of sexual
prejudice because they seem so insignificant by comparison. They
are not.

Examples of Sexual Prejudice
Identify Allport’s level of prejudiced action that each example matches.

• Looking at an LGBT person and automatically thinking of her/his
sexuality or gender rather than seeing her/him as a whole, complex
person.

• Failing to be supportive when your LGBT friend is sad about a
quarrel or breakup.

• Changing your seat in a meeting because an LGBT person sat in
the chair next to yours.

• Thinking you can “spot one.”

• Being afraid to ask questions about LGBT issues when you don't
know the answers.


• Not asking about a woman's female lover
or a man's male lover although you
regularly ask "How is your husband/wife?"
when you run into a heterosexual friend.

• Thinking that a lesbian (if you are female)
or gay man (if you are male) is making
sexual advances if she/he touches you.

• Feeling repulsed by public displays of
affection between lesbians and gay men
but accepting the same affectional
displays between heterosexuals.

• Using the terms “lesbian” or “gay” as
accusatory.


• Feeling that discussions about homophobia are not necessary since
you are "okay" on these issues.

• Assuming that everyone you meet is heterosexual, and if not, they
should be (also known as heterosexism).

• Feeling that a lesbian is just a woman who couldn't find a man or
that a lesbian is a woman who wants to be a man.

• Feeling that a gay man is just a man who couldn't find a woman or
that a gay man is a man who wants to be a woman.

• Not confronting a homophobic remark for fear of being identified with
or as LGBT.


• Worrying about the effect an
LGBT volunteer or coworker will
have on your work or your clients.

• Asking your LGBT colleagues to
speak about LGBT issues, but not
about other issues about which
they may be knowledgeable.

• Focusing exclusively on
someone's sexual orientation and
not on other issues of concern.

• Feeling that LGBT people are too
outspoken about civil rights.

How Sexual Prejudice Hurts Everyone

• You do not have to be
LGBT – or know
someone who is – to be
negatively affected by
sexual prejudice.
Although it actively
oppresses LGBT
people, it also hurts
heterosexuals.

Sexual Prejudice:

• Compromises human
integrity by pressuring
people to treat others
badly, actions that are
contrary to their basic
humanity.

• Inhibits the ability of
heterosexuals to form
close, intimate
relationships with
members of their own
sex, for fear of being
perceived as LGBT.

Sexual Prejudice:

• Is often used to stigmatize heterosexuals,
those perceived or labeled by others to be
LGBT, children of LGBT parents, parents
of LGBT children, and friends of LGBTs.
This makes it hard for straight people and
LGBT people to be friends.

• Is one cause of premature sexual
involvement, which increases the
chances of teen pregnancy and the
spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Young people, of all sexual identities, are
often pressured to become heterosexually
active to prove to themselves and others
that they are "normal.”

Sexual Prejudice:

• Prevents some LGBT people from
developing an authentic self identity
and adds to the pressure to marry,
which in turn places undue stress and
often times trauma on themselves as
well as their heterosexual spouses,
and their children.

• Combined with sex-phobia, results in
the invisibility or erasure of LGBT lives
and sexuality in school-based sex
education discussions, keeping vital
information from students. Such
erasures can kill people in the age of
AIDS.

Sexual Prejudice:

• Locks people into rigid gender-
based roles that inhibit
creativity and self expression.

• Inhibits appreciation of other
types of diversity, making it
unsafe for everyone because
each person has unique traits
not considered mainstream or
dominant. When any one of us
is demeaned, we are all
diminished.

What is Heterosexual Privilege?
• Heterosexual privilege is
the range of perks and
incentives with which
heterosexually identified
persons are rewarded for
conforming to the
dominant sexuality.
Coming to terms with
privilege can be the most
painful part of becoming
an ally.

Examples of Heterosexual Privilege
If you are heterosexual (or even simply perceived as heterosexual):

• You can discuss your relationships and publicly acknowledge your
partner (such as by having a picture of her/him on your desk)
without fearing that people will automatically disapprove or think that
you are being "blatant."

• You do not have to worry about being mistreated by the police or
victimized by the criminal justice system because of your orientation.

• You can express affection (kissing, hugging, and holding hands) in
most social situations and not expect hostile or violent reactions
from others.

• You are more likely to see sexually-explicit images of people of your
orientation without these images provoking public consternation or
censorship.


• You can go wherever you want and know that you will not be
harassed, beaten, or killed because of your orientation.

• You can legally marry the person whom you love and you can
receive tax breaks, health and insurance coverage, and spousal
legal rights through being in a long-term relationship.

• You can express yourself sexually without the fear of being
prosecuted for breaking the law (sodomy laws were enforceable in
16 states and were used to deny civil rights to lesbians, gay men,
and bisexuals until 2003).

• You can expect to see people of your orientation positively
presented on nearly every television show and in nearly every
movie.


• You can expect that your children will be given texts in school that
implicitly support your kind of family unit and that they will not be
taught that your orientation is a "perversion."

• You can approach the legal system, social service organizations,
and government agencies without fearing discrimination because of
your orientation.

• You can raise, adopt, and teach children without people believing
that you will molest them or force them in to your orientation.
Moreover, people generally will not try to take away your children
because of your orientation.

• You can belong to the religious denomination of your choice and
know that your orientation will not be denounced by its religious
leaders.


• You can easily find a neighborhood
in which residents will accept how
you have constituted your
household.

• You know that you will not be fired
from a job or denied a promotion
because of your orientation.

• You can join the military and be
open about your orientation.

• You can work in traditionally male-
or female-dominated occupations
without it being considered "natural"
for someone of your orientation.


• You can expect to be around others of your orientation most of the
time. You do not have to worry about being the only one of your
orientation in a class, on a job, or in a social situation.

• If you were to commit a sexual crime (such as rape or incest), it
would not be viewed as a direct result of your orientation.

• You can teach about lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals without
being seen as having a bias because of your orientation or forcing a
"homosexual agenda" on students.

• You can act, dress, and talk as you choose without it being
considered a reflection on people of your orientation.

How to Support LGBT Students
(from PFLAG)

• Don't be surprised when someone comes out to you.

• Respect confidentiality. It is imperative that you can be trusted.

• Be informed. Most of us are products of a homophobic society. It is
important that you are aware of the needs of LGBT students.

• Examine your own biases. If you are uncomfortable with dealing with
the issue, and know that you are unable to be open and accepting,
you need to refer the student to someone else.

• Know when and where to seek help. Know all available resources.

• Don't try to guess who's LGBT.

• Maintain a balanced perspective. Sexual thoughts and feelings are
only a small (but important) part of a person's self.

• Understand the meaning of "sexual orientation" and "gender
identity." Each person's sexual orientation is natural to that person.

• Deal with feelings first. You can be helpful by just listening and
allowing LGBT students the opportunity to vent feelings.

• Help, but don't force. LGBT people need to move at the pace they
feel most comfortable with.

• Challenge bigoted remarks and jokes. This shows support.

• Be supportive. Share
with them that this is an
issue that others must
deal with, too.

• Make sure a copy of
Working with Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender College
Students: A Handbook
for Faculty and
Administrators (Sanlo,
1998) is available for
reference in your
workplace.

Resources
• Challenging Homophobia: An educators resource. (www.challenginghomophobia.net)
• American Psychological Association: Sexual orientation and homosexuality.
(www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx)
• Assault on Gay America: The life and death of Billy Jack Gaither.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/)
• Definitions: Homophobia, heterosexism, and sexual prejudice.
(http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/prej_defn.html)
• Queer Peer Services (www.ramapo.edu/students/qps/index.html)
• Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (1954).
• Ronni L. Sanlo, Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College
Students: A Handbook for Faculty and Administrators (Greenwood Press, 1998).
• Joe Kort, “Straight Men Who Have Sex with Men (SMSM)”, glbtq: An Encyclopedia of
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture, www.glbtq.com/social-
sciences/straight_men_who.html (2008), accessed 2 March 2010.
• Ian Ayres and Jennifer Brown, Straightforward: How to Mobilize Heterosexual
Support for Gay Rights, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)

Fighting Homophobia

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