Alternatives to "homophobia"?

[sonia]

Today I learned from Ableist words and terms to avoid by Lydia X. Z. Brown that the term "homophobia" is ableist, because a phobia is a mental illness and should not be used to mean bias or bigotry.

I did a further search for alternatives, and There Is No 'Neutral' Word for Anti-Gay Bias by Lily Rothman, Dec 2012, suggests "anti-gay bias" or "heterosexism."

I had used "homophobia" four times in my articles over the years. I went back and replaced them with "heterosexism." To me that's an unfamiliar term that doesn't carry the immediate weight and associations of "homophobia." I was usually using it in a list with sexism, racism, etc., so heterosexism does work better than anti-gay bias.

Does anyone have any other suggested terms? The Atlantic article has some interesting discussion of the change in terminology, regarding whether anti-gay bias is or isn't about fear, but it's from 2012. Has the conversation advanced since then?

Oh yeah, and since I'm posting this on National Coming Out Day, by the way I'm bi.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I'm also a big fan of the word "bigotry" -- what many people call "ableism" I think of as "normate bigotry." (But realistically that word isn't self evident to fly without an explanation.)

I grew up with heterosexism and what I like about it is that anti-gay bigots have frozen ideas about sex roles, and freak out at the idea of feminine men and masculine women.

In terms of moving from margin to center, non-native? non-Black? non-disabled? non-queer?

People of colorlessness?

[sonia]

Thanks for the ideas! I think terms are going to keep shifting, and the most important thing is to keep raising awareness of bigotry.