Manya's (Random and Incomplete) Blog: A rant on etymology and the word 'homophobe'

maryashouldbedoingsomethingelse:

So you know what really bothers me? When people use the word ‘homophobia’ outside of its proper context, which sadly, is almost all of the time.

I’m a psychology student and a ‘phobia’ is a mental disorder which evokes such strong fear of something (object, setting, animal etc) that it inhibits…

Whilst I agree etymology of words is very important, the issue surrounding the use of homophobia, or describing someone who is bigoted towards homosexual people is that, well, it’s really the only term, there’s no term like sexist, or racist, or ableist that can be used (that I’m aware of) =/