Discuss homophobia and heterosexuality. How are they related? What are sexual minority communities, and how do they develop? How did the gay rights movement develop? In regard to these concepts, what social change has occurred in the U.S.?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Homophobia is the attitude that heterosexuals are superior to homosexuals. Heterosexism is the institutionally based inequality that may derive from homophobia. In response to sexual inequality, people with minority sexual orientations often band together, both to find suitable partners and to escape the hostility of the mainstream society. They can form their own subcultures or sexual minority communities, with their own gathering places, social hierarchies, norms, values, and group cohesion. They can work to change social disapproval. Gay men and lesbians have probably been the most successful at creating social change. The gay rights movement in the U.S. arose in the late 1960s with the youth counterculture. Political and social leaders were faced with gay men and lesbians who looked and acted like other young people, and who could be their children. Now many strictly gay social institutions (bookstores, churches) are struggling to survive, because they are included in mainstream culture. Antigay prejudice and discrimination still exist but now they can be fought more effectively within mainstream social institutions