Ask not for whom
homophobia tolls

During his State of the Union address last week, President Bush supported a constitutional amendment to restrict the institution of marriage to include a man and a woman to the exclusion of same-sex couples. The week before, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings pressured PBS to cancel an episode of its Postcards from Buster children's series because it portrayed several children whose two families were headed by lesbian mothers. In the wake of these actions, I cannot help thinking about something Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave and abolitionist, once said when he described the dehumanizing effects of slavery not on slaves alone but also on white slave owners whose relationship to slavery corrupted their humanity. While the social conditions of Douglass's time were very different from those today, nonetheless I believe his words hold meaning by analogy: "No [person] can put a chain about the ankle of [another person] without at last finding the other end fastened about his [or her] own neck." Though it cannot be denied that the actions of the Bush administration on this issue serves their interests in a number of ways, I believe such a policy is misguided and uninformed, and therefore this strategy will eventually backfire and the chain will take hold of them. In truth, homophobia (prejudice and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people) is pervasive throughout our society, and each of us, regardless of sexual or gender identity and expression, is at risk of its harmful effects. First, homophobic conditioning compromises the integrity of people by pressuring them to treat others badly, which is contrary to their basic humanity. It inhibits one's ability to form close, intimate relationships with members of one's own sex, generally restricts communication with a significant portion of the population, and more specifically limits family relationships. Homophobia locks all people into rigid gender-based roles that inhibit creativity and self expression. It is often used to stigmatize, silence, and on occasion target people who are perceived or defined by others as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, but who are in actuality heterosexual. In addition, homophobia 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." Societal homophobia prevents some LGBT people from developing an authentic self-identity and adds to the pressure to marry someone of the other sex, which in turn places undue stress and oftentimes traumatizes them as well as their heterosexual spouses and their children. Homophobia combined with sexphobia (fear and revulsion of sex) results in the elimination of discussion of the lives and sexuality of LGBT people as part of school-based sex education, keeping vital information from all students. In the age of AIDS such a lack of information can kill people. And homophobia (along with racism, sexism, classism, and sexphobia) inhibits a unified and effective governmental and societal response to the AIDS pandemic. With all of the truly important issues facing the world, homophobia diverts energy and attention from more constructive endeavors. It also prevents heterosexuals from accepting the benefits and gifts offered by LGBT people, including theoretical insights, social and spiritual visions and options, contributions to the arts and culture, to religion, to education, to family life--indeed, to all facets of society. Ultimately, homophobia inhibits appreciation of other types of diversity, making it unsafe for everyone because each person has unique traits not considered mainstream or dominant. Therefore we are all diminished when any one of us is demeaned. The meaning is quite clear: When any group of people is scapegoated, it is ultimately everyone's concern. Today lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are targeted; tomorrow, they may come for you. Everyone, therefore, has a self-interest in actively working to dismantle all the many forms of bigotry, including homophobia. I believe that we are all born into an environment polluted by homophobia (one among many forms of oppression), which falls on us like acid rain. For some people, spirits are tarnished to the core; others are marred on the surface; no one is completely protected. Therefore we all have a responsibility, indeed an opportunity, to join together as allies to construct protective shelters from the corrosive effects of bigotry while working to clean up the homophobic environment in which we live. Once sufficient steps are taken to reduce this pollution, we will all breathe a lot easier.