Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["James Piat" <piat1 AT bellsouth.net>]

Title: Re: [percy-l] gay marriage

Dear Tim,

 

Sometimes I use the term homophobic  -- and what I mean by it is an irrational dislike of homosexuals based upon a fear that one's own homosexual impulses will overwhelm one's desire to suppress them.  Rather that acknowledging and dealing directly with one's own homosexual impulses the homophobic (per this formulation) targets and attempts to destroy an overt manifestation (homosexuals) of his covert desires.  I don't think all objections to homosexual behavior are based upon such dynamics, but I do think they are sometimes part of the equation.  What I think is constructive about this definition is that it reminds me to guard against my tendency to blame others for what I fear are my own faults  -- cast the mote out of our own eye and so forth.  Unfortunately, as you point out, the term is sometimes used as a verbal club to bash folks who object to homosexuality on other grounds.  But I'm not expert on the subject and all this is just my take.

 

Jim Piat

I’d like very much to hear someone who likes/uses the term ‘homophobic’ to suggest a definition that’s constructive and useful. It seems to me to be a word constructed to muddy semantic waters and caricature those who have moral and teleological objections to homosexual behavior, and not an irrational fear of homosexuals.

I have a long time family friend, a psychologist, who uses the term more liberally than ketchup in his letters to the editor , but won’t define it for me. Drives me batty...