About Homophobia and Transphobia
The Fondation Émergence gives the following definition of sexual diversity:
Heterosexism
Heterosexism is the belief that everyone is heterosexual and that heterosexuality is the only acceptable way of being. This belief, which relies on the idea that the majority rules and is therefore normal, is often the source of homophobia.
Homophobia
It's all the negative attitudes that can lead to rejection and to direct or indirect discrimination towards gay men, lesbians, and bisexual, transsexual or transgender people or toward anyone whose physical appearance or behaviour does not fit masculine or feminine stereotypes. The following are variants of homophobia:
* Bi-phobia: aversion towards bisexual people or bisexuality;
* Gayphobia: aversion towards gay men or male homosexuality;
* Lesbophobia: aversion towards lesbian women or female homosexuality.
Transphobia
Transphobia is a negative attitude or feeling, an aversion towards transgender people, transsexuals or people who are transitioning.?
Transgender Person
Person who perceives themselves and identifies as belonging to a different sex and who feels the need to live that way. In contrast to a transsexual person, the transgender person refuses gender reassignment or a sex change. Also a transgender person is someone who does not conform to the norm imposed by male and female gender identities; some people consider themselves gender-fluid.
Transsexual Person
Person who has already changed their sex physically or a person who is making that transition through medical treatment or surgery. This transformation is usually irreversible.
Sistagirl
The term ‘Sistagirl’ is used to describe a transgender person in Tiwi Island culture. Traditionally, the term was ‘Yimpininni’.
Intersex Person
An intersex person is someone who shows physical features of both sexes.
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual) communities as being oppressive or assimilationist.
LGBTIQS Communities
LGBTTI is an acronym used by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Sistagirl Communities.
The Consequences of Homophobia and Transphobia
According to Australian research “35 per cent of the population aged 14 years and above believes that homosexuality is immoral. When broken down by gender, nearly 43 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women take this view”
Flood & Hamilton, 2005. Mapping Homophobia in Australia. Australia Institute Webpaper
The following is an exert from a recently published research report into the experience of young LGBTIQ people in Australia
Hillier et al (2010) Writing Themselves In 3: The third national study on the sexual health and wellbeing of same sex attracted and gender questioning young people. Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society
“We learned from the previous two national reports that SSAGQ young people suffer high levels of verbal and physical homophobic abuse in the community and particularly at school. In 2010 61% of young people reported verbal abuse because of homophobia, 18% physical abuse and 26% ‘other’ forms of homophobia. Young men and GQ young people reported more abuse than young women.
The most common place of abuse remained school with 80% of those who were abused naming school. This continues the trend of increased levels of reported homophobic violence in schools (69% in 1998; 74% in 2004) and may, in part, be the result of more SSAGQ young people being out and visible. Sport was the place of least abuse but young men and GQ young people were over represented in this percentage.
There were strong links between homophobic abuse and feeling unsafe, excessive drug use, self-harm and suicide attempts. Young people who had been physically abused had worse mental health indicators than those who reported verbal abuse or no abuse. Drug use, which we surmise from their stories is often about self-medication, was higher in these young people than young people in general and young women were more likely to use drugs than young men. For more than half of the participants, homophobic abuse impacted negatively on aspects of their schooling, however, for 42%, homophobia had no impact at all.”
