Reading Response

In the article "How Homophobia Hurts Everyone" by Warren J. Blumenfeld, he describes how being homosexual can affect not just that person but the other people in his life. Blumenfeld begins by telling his story of how he used to get teased and mocked when he was in school. This resulted in a separation from his younger sister socially. She could not handle the fact that he was gay and people would also make jokes to her about it.

We do not realize how much homosexuals and their family and friends are hurt and what we can do to prevent it. Blumenfeld's sister just went along with the rest of the students after a while because it seemed to make things easier for her but always ened up hurting her brother in the end. The author makes us think about the different types of homophobia people have and how we might be able to prevent it in the future.

Personal homophobia is when someone personally prejudices against homosexuals and feels they are powerless, should be hated, disturbed and defected. Interpersonal homophobia is when the prejudice begins to affect relationships because of name calling or jokes. This is the case between Blumefeld and his sister. Institutional homophobia is when the government, businesses or education systems intentionally are against this sexual identity. They make their laws and rules specifically against homosexuals so they are unable to get schooling or work in these specific places. This will also affect different relationships between people.

Blumenfeld also discussed affects on heterosexuals that are homophobic. Homophobia can make people unable to have close relationships with others of the same sex. Usually after adolescent years they are encouraged by parents, peers and media to become close with those of the opposite sex. This can also lead heterosexuals to stay within their stereotyped gender. The females cannot be masculine and males cannot be feminine because if there is a slight bit of change they may encounter harrassment. Since heterosexuals may feel this way it will push them to do the harrassing as well.

Throughout this article I have been able to see both sides of how homophobia affects people. It does not have a positive affect on either homosexuals or heterosexuals. Someone is always afraid of being judged or harrassed. If we can overcome the ideal stereotypes then individuals in societies will not have to worry about having to fit in based on their sexual identitiy.