This term is used to describe rejection, fear, or discrimination towards lesbian women and gay men.
A homophobic action includes any verbal, physical, psychological, or sexual aggression towards people with these sexual orientations. Today, there are still many countries where lesbian women and gay men are persecuted and even sentenced to death because of their sexual orientation.
This type of rejection, fear, or discrimination is sometimes so institutionalized that it is difficult to perceive in society. Some religious beliefs have normalized homophobia, even considering people with a diverse sexual orientation sinners or abnormal.
A clear example is the use of the conjunction but when people say they are not homophobic and then add the conjunction before their statement. This fact includes an internalized fear that, often, conceals a social problem. For example, ‘I’m not homophobic, but they don’t have to kiss in public’; ‘I’m not homophobic, but they don’t have to have a pride march’.
Sometimes, and mistakenly, this word is also used to show rejection towards bisexual and transsexual people. In these cases, the word that defines rejection, fear, or discrimination towards bisexual people is biphobia and towards transsexual people, transphobia. In 2004, the United Nations declared 17 May as the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.
According to different institutions, such as the Pan American Health Organization or the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), homophobia is considered a public health issue in Latin America and the Caribbean. Despite this, to move away from a medical model and not consider sexual diversity as a pathology, some organizations prefer other words. For example, hate, intolerance, or prejudice towards gay and lesbian people.