Some Small facts I found around everywhere Mrs. Wattier! * Students who describe themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered are five times more likely to miss school because of feeling unsafe. 28% are forced to drop out. --National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "Anti-Gay/Lesbian Victimization," New York, 1984. * The vast majority of victims of anti-lesbian/gay violence - possibly more than 80% - never report the incident, often due to fear of being "outed." --New York Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project Annual Report, 1996. * 85% of teachers oppose integrating lesbian, gay and bisexual themes in their curricula. --"Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth: Report of the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth," 1993. * Due to sexual orientation discrimination, lesbians earn up to 14% less than their heterosexual female peers with similar jobs, education, age and residence, according to a study by the University of Maryland. --Badgett, M.V. Lee, "The Wage Effects of Sexual Orientation Discrimination," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, July 1995.
	Gays against Homophobics Protest in Washington D.C.
		* 42% of homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. --Orion Center, Survey of Street Youth, Seattle, WA: Orion Center, 1986. * More than 84% of Americans oppose employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. --Survey Conducted by Newsweek, January 1997. * 75% of people committing hate crimes are under age 30 - one in three are under 18 - and some of the most pervasive anti-gay violence occurs in schools. --New York Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Report, 1996. * Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are at a four times higher risk for suicide than their straight peers. --Gibson P., LCSW, "Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide," Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989. * A survey of 191 employers revealed that 18% would fire, 27% would refuse to hire and 26% would refuse to promote a person they perceived to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. --Schatz and O'Hanlan, "Anti-Gay Discrimination in Medicine: Results of a National Survey of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Physicians," San Francisco, 1994.

		The suffix "phobia" is derived from the Greek word "phobos". In English, it means either fear or loathing. "Homophobia" has a variety of meanings, including: "hatred of homosexuality" "hatred of homosexuals" "fear of gays and lesbians" "a desire or attempt to discriminate against homosexuals" When researching homophobia I found that there are infact several different types of Homophobia. Not only is homophobia the fear of homosexuals/homosexuality but can also be the discrimination or hatred of homosexuals. There are many defenses for both gays and homophobics. Most homophobics believe it is morally and religiously wrong to be gay. Saying that being gay is more of a chosen lifestyle than something one is born with. Gays on the other hand believe it is something one is born with and cannot help. Some gays although have chosen that lifestyle. Bad relationships or experiences with the opposite sex causes some to become homosexual. Laws are still in act against homosexual behaviors. Many gay right activists of course believe laws against gays is unconstitutional. Many riots are caused by gay right activists over their gay rights. Many people, homophobic or not don't believe gays should have as many rights as an "average" person might. Many arguements against homosexuals include: 1. Homosexuality is unnatural 2. Homosexuality is an attack on the family 3. The Bible condemns homosexuality, a very popular one among religious people. 4. Homosexuality tries to recruit young people. Although are arguements are valid, gays refuse to accept any of the beliefs saying same sex relations feels equally as natural as opposite sex attraction. Valid? I think not... Hundreds of suicides and murders are committed every year due to homosexuality. The hatred for homosexuals sometimes leads to violent acts by homophobics. For many homophobes these multiple meanings are not troublesome. An individual who hates homosexuality may well hate homosexuals as well, and probably discriminates against them. Their hatred is usually based on fear. However, many conservative religious people are cranky when the term is used to define their beliefs and actions. Some state that they hate homosexuality but love the homosexual. They don't wish to be lumped with racists and sexists. Others are selective in their discriminatory goals. They might be in favor of equal civil rights for gays and lesbians in employment and accommodation, while opposing equal rights in marriage or adoption. Again, they do not regard themselves as homophobes, even though they work towards the maintenance of special rights for heterosexuals. This type of concern mirrors a situation decades ago when some people did not consider themselves to be racists even though they opposed inter-racial marriage. They maintained that they had no hatred against persons of any race; they just wanted to prevent them from marrying outside of their race. Similarly, many people do not consider themselves to be sexist, even though they wish to prohibit women from being ordained as clergy or from sharing power equally with their spouses. They believe that they have no hatred of women; they just want them to be excluded from certain roles. They often feel justified in their beliefs by quoting selected passages on the Bible. Laws against Homosexual Behavior In the United States, laws prohibiting sexual behavior are the responsibility of the individual states. The result is a patchwork quilt of laws across the country. Many states still have laws which ban specific sexual acts, whether consentually performed by same-sex couples or by heterosexual couples (married or not). Other states criminalize certain sexual acts between homosexuals, but allow the same activity among consenting heterosexual adults. Other states have laws that prohibit "crimes against nature", a phrase which is open to wide interpretation. Although the term "sodomy" is popularly defined as anal sex, the word is commonly interpreted by the courts as including both anal and oral sex. In some states, police utilize other laws against gays and lesbians; e.g. "solicitation for indecent purposes." The Georgia anti-sodomy state law was appealed to the US Supreme Court. In 1986, the court upheld the law as constitutional. They decided that individuals have no fundamental federal constitutional right to "engage in sodomy." (Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186). One Internet source (4) lists the status of anti-sodomy laws for various states as of 1995. The following states were believed to have had laws still on the books: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia. You can get life imprisonment in Michigan for repeat offenses. Many other states authorize jail sentences up to 10 or 20 years. In 1961, Illinois was the first state to repeal anti-sodomy laws. Since that event, state legislatures have repealed their law, or a state court has declared it unconstitutional in: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Socalled "Homophobics" protesting against homosexuality. Recent legal activity includes: Montana: They enacted an anti-sodomy law in 1973 which permitted a judge to assign a 10 year jail sentence and/or a maximum fine of $50,000. On 1996-FEB-20, District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock declared that state's law unconstitutional, because it conflicted with state constitutional guarantees of personal privacy. The Montana Supreme Court upheld the District Court decision in mid-1997. Nobody has ever been convicted under the law. Tennessee: On 1996-JAN-26 The Tennessee Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the state's anti-gay sodomy law was unconstitutional. The court stated that "the right of the plaintiffs to engage in consentual, private, non-commercial sexual conduct" involved "intimate questions of personal and family concern." Thus, they could not be criminalized by the state. We are unaware whether the state has appealed this decision to their state's Supreme Court. In Canada, laws controlling sexual behavior are the responsibility of the Federal government, and thus apply across the entire country. They permit sexual activities of all types between adults, although they currently have a higher age of consent for homosexual than for heterosexual consentual sex. It is doubtful whether this form of discrimination could withstand a constitutional challenge.

Results of Public Opinion Polls

One A TIME/CNN poll in 1994 showed that 52% of US adults found the homosexual lifestyle to be acceptable; this is an increase from 35% from 1978.
The National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago has been asking a fixed set of questions for 24 years. From 1973 to 1996, the percentage of Americans who think homosexuality is "wrong" declined from 73% to 61%.

Works Cited/Resources

www.now.org/issues/lgbi/stats.html Cox News Service, 1996-JUL-31 reviewing an article by Drs. Henry Adams, Lester Wright Jr. & Bethany Lohr "Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?", Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105 (1996), P. 440-445 Report of the Standing Commission on Human Affairs of the Episcopal Church to the 1994 General Convention. Available at http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/mib/anglican/official/humaff U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide, Volume 3: Prevention and Interventions in Youth Suicide", Rockville, MD, 1989 (report suppressed) "Julie's World" at: http://data.club.cc.cmu.edu/~julie/antisod.html http://carnap.umd.edu/queer/picture_gallery/history.html