The Black culture is deeply steeped in the tradition of the Church. Representatives of the religious community exert a powerful influence on Blacks and their cry against homosexuality is taken up by the larger sections of the Black community
by Thomas B. Romney.
Debbie, an attractive college coed, makes no bones about it. She dislikes homosexuals and wants nothing to do with them. "If I found out that one of my friends was one I would stop speaking to them," she said. Ask Debbie why she reacts this way and she might reply that homosexuality is abnormal or perverted. Her answers might become vague, tinged with an emotional overtone of fear and anxiety. Debbie is a victim of Homophobia.
Debbie is an intelligent woman, yet when pressed for a rationale behind her attitudes towards gays it is neither sound nor new. Would she react the same if she found out that one of her friends was diabetic, or suffered from cancer? Probably not, because she might understand those conditions and not feel threatened by them, threatened by the fear of the unknown. Debbie is not alone. An overwhelming number of Blacks suffer from homophobia - a fear of homosexuals. Homophobia, as in other phobias, is rooted in the fear of the unknown. People generally fear something which escapes their understanding or which they lack sufficient information to adequately judge a situation. The over-abundance of erroneous information on homosexuality only serves to further confuse and complicate the issue.
The influence of the Black Church, the importance of masculinity and the role of the family appear to be the underlying causes of homophobia in the Black community. These issues deserve further exploration.
First, there is the issue concerning the influence of the Black Church. A majority of Black ministers view homosexuality as going against the teachings of the Bible and immoral.
Bishop William A. Hilliard, of the Third African Methodist Episcopal Zion District, is one of many in the religious community opposed to homosexuality. "The Church is diametrically opposed to homosexuality; we stated that as our official position last year at our national conference, it is a sin," he stated. Bishop Hilliard's colleagues are quick to agree. Bishop Jasper Roby, spiritual head of the Apostolic Overcoming Holy Church of God, believes that unless homosexuality is stopped it will "destroy us all."
The Black culture is deeply steeped in the tradition of the Church. Representatives of the religious community exert a powerful influence on Blacks and their cry against homosexuality is taken up by the larger sections of the Black community. The general attitude of these ministers is that homosexuals should repent, as they contend that homosexuality is a matter of choice and homosexuals can change if they so desire.
Yet there are a few ministers who have taken a positive stance on the issue. These ministers, unlike the majority of their colleagues, do not condemn homosexuality but rather express compassion on the issue.
According to the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver of the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) in Kansas City, "The homosexual issue is too complex to conclude anything. We don't know the cause. The Bible offers some strong statements against it but any Bible scholar would tell you that even that is inconclusive."
Dartmouth College student Karen Alston, a 1977 presidential scholar, is annoyed to find that people will pick out specific verses from the Bible, out of context, to support their claims against homosexuality. The causes of homosexuality have yet to be determined and one cannot automatically condemn persons based on their sexual preferences.
Second, there is the issue concerning the importance placed on masculinity. Masculinity, or machismo, is highly valued in the Black community as an indication of the male sex role.
In a recent interview comedian Richard Pryor said, "Straight black people often have a hard time dealing with gays. All my life I've seen that macho shit in the black neighborhoods, where you try to eliminate someone mentally, to get out of dealing with them by saying, 'Oh, you're a faggot, you don't know from nothing .'" In a recent article John Soares wrote, "Too many believe that (the street sissy) is the only gay role available to them because it is the only one they are full aware of."
A large percentage of Black males see homosexuality as a threat to their masculinity. According to gay men, straight males are very insecure in their masculinity and assume that being gay automatically makes them less of a man and detracts from their maleness.
On the other hand homosexuality need not affect one's sense of masculinity. Sexual preference is but one characteristic constituting the total person. Soares writes, "Perhaps too many reject being gay as a real option because their cultural screen prevents them from seeing that 'gay' is defined by sexual preferences only, and not any particular lifestyle."
It seems the very concept of what constitutes "masculinity" is on very shaky ground. Adherence to sexual stereotyping and rigid sex roles is partially responsible for the fear of homosexuality.
Third is the issue concerning the affect of homosexuality on the structure of the Black family? The family holds an important role in the community.
Among members of the Black community there is the contention that homosexuality is detrimental to family life. The idea of procreation is very important in the Black family.
Black gay activist Billy Jones said, "Many Blacks see the whole Gay movement as a means of destroying the Black family. When they talk about Gay men they see it as unmanly, weak. They don't think of Gays as being family people, as having children."
Within the community homosexuals are seen as degrading. Many Blacks not only cannot see them as having children but also as providing negative role models for Black youth.
However, when one investigates individual families a different picture emerges. In direct contrast to the larger community, the family is more accepting of family members that announce their sexual orientation.
On an individual basis "Black families tend to be very accepting of family members who identify themselves as sexual minorities. They really make an effort to try to understand them and the love stays there," said Jones. Although in middle-class families there is a certain amount of difficulty in the acceptance of gay family members, for the majority of working-class Black people, gay lovers and steadies are accepted by, or even into, the family with a lack of flag-waving and statement making.
When confronted with homosexuality in their own families Blacks are far more understanding and accepting than on the larger scale of the Community. And the homophobia subsides as individual families begin to understand the unknown.
Whether we like it or not, right or wrong Black homosexuality is not going to disappear across the horizon. As Black people continue to struggle for their basic human rights they cannot afford to ignore the basic rights of a group within their own ranks for sexual preference. Divesting themselves of the irrational fears and ignorance on the issue of homosexuality, they will discover there are far fewer differences in their brothers and sisters apart from a failure to mirror the larger community's sexual preferences.
Most of the people in the world have a fear of one kind or another. While most people suffer from pathophobia (fear of disease), monophobia (fear of being alone), glossophobia (fear of public speaking), algophobia (fear of pain), taphephobia (fear of being buried alive), and many more, there are also some less popular phobias. At the end of this essay, I have compiled a list of the phobias that I find amusing.
There are many people in the world that suffer from polyphobia, which simply means to have more than one fear. Not so common, people may suffer from antinomial phobias. For example, there are some people that live with vestiophobia (fear of clothes) and gymnophobia (fear of nudity). Another example is people with achluophobia (fear of darkness) and photophobia (fear of light).
Watch out guys, within the next seven years, you will probably get married and you will suffer from pentheraphobia, which is one of the scariest phobias in existence, the fear of your mother-in-law!
Not all phobias have been in existence for thousands of years. I’m sure that brontophobia (fear of thunder and lightning), febriphobia (fear of fever), and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) have existed since the Black Ages. Some of the phobias that have formed in the last two centuries would be electrophobia (fear of electricity), motorphobia (fear of automobiles), and aviophobia (fear of flying). In 1945, a brand new phobia was quickly created and escalated drastically in the 1950’s. It is called nucleomituphobia, which is the fear or nuclear weapons. But that’s not the newest phobia in existence as of today. This threat is called cyberphobia (fear of computers). In mild cases, people may be afraid to use a computer or an ATM. In today’s society, technology is deeply integrated. Computers are used in calculators, cars, microwaves, power tools, and many more. So to the cyberphobic, I say, “Get over it, or go to the extreme and move away from the city, abandon your car, hand build your home, hand pump your water, build your fires, and hunt for your own food!”
If you have a phobia, there is still hope for you. Phobias can be cured. Remember when you were a child and suffered from clinophobia (fear of going to bed) because of bogyphobia (fear of the bogeyman), achluophobia (fear of darkness), and lachanophobia (fear of vegetables). Now chances are good that you go to bed without checking your closet or looking under your bed, that you don’t go ballistic if the lights go out, and that you eat a salad every so often.
Phobias can deeply impact a person’s life. A person with chronophobia (fear of time) probably won’t make it to their 10:00AM dentist appointment on time. A person with chaetophobia (fear of hair) is most likely bald, has no eyelashes, no eyebrows, etc. A person with cibophobia (fear of food) usually hasn’t eaten in weeks and could easily be anorexic. This proves how serious and destructive phobias can be. If you do suffer from any strange phobias, I would suggest calling one-eight-hundred-phobias, for arithmophobics (people who fear numbers) or for logophobics (people who fear words), 1-800-635-1317. This phone number is for entertainment purposes only.
Now on a more serious note, in all the years I’ve lived and all the knowledge I’ve acquired, I can only find one, yes one, valid fear. This fear is called zeusophobia, which is the fear of God. In Heaven, the false phobias are destroyed, but in Hell they can be amplified.
I still find it hilarious, though, that these phobias exist, especially since someone must have experienced these fears so they could be valid phobias. So if you experience arachibutyrophobia, you’re probably one in a million, but you’re still out there.
Some fears may be listed more than once
A
Ablutophobia - Fear of washing or bathing
Aerophobia - Fear of swallowing air
Ambulophobia - Fear of walking
Anablephobia - Fear of looking up
Anemophobia - Fear of wind
Anthrophobia - Fear of flowers
Arachibutyrophobia - Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Arithmophobia - Fear of numbers
Aulophobia - Fear of flutes
Auroraphobia - Fear of Northern Lights
B
Barophobia - Fear of gravity
Basophobia - Fear of walking
Batophobia - Fear of being close to high buildings
Bibliophobia - Fear of books
Blennophobia - Fear of slime
Bogyphobia - Fear of the bogeyman
C
Cathisophobia - Fear of sitting
Catoptrophobia - Fear of mirrors
Chaetophobia - Fear of hair
Chionophobia - Fear of snow
Chromatophobia - Fear of colors
Chronophobia - Fear of time
Chronomentrophobia - Fear of clocks
Cibophobia - Fear of food
Clinophobia - Fear of going to bed
Cnidophobia - Fear of string
D
Deciophobia - Fear of making decisions
Dendrophobia - Fear of trees
Dextrophobia - Fear of objects at the right side of the body
Didaskaleinophobia - Fear of school
E
Eisoptrophobia - Fear of mirrors
Eleutherophobia - Fear of freedom
Eosophobia - Fear of daylight
Epistemophobia - Fear of knowledge
Ergophobia - Fear of work
Ereuthophobia - Fear of the color red
G
Geliophobia - Fear of laughter
Geniophobia - Fear of chins
Genuphobia - Fear of knees
Geumaphobia - Fear of taste
Gnosiophobia - Fear of knowledge
Graphophobia - Fear of writing
H
Heliophobia - Fear of the sun
Helmintophobia - Fear of being infested with worms
Hemophobia - Fear of blood
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words
Homichlophobia - Fear of fog
Hypnophobia -Fear of sleep
I
Ichthyophobia - Fear of fish
Ideophobia - Fear of ideas
K
Kainophobia - Fear of anything new
Kathisophobia - Fear of sitting down
L
Lachanophobia - Fear of vegetables
Leukophobia - Fear of the color white
Levophobia - Fear of objects to the left side of the body
Linonophobia - Fear of string
Logophobia - Fear of words
M
Melanophobia - Fear of the color black
Melophobia - Fear of music
Metrophobia - Fear of poetry
Mnemophobia - Fear of memories
Mottephobia - Fear of moths
N
Nebulaphobia - Fear of fog
Neophobia - Fear of anything new
Nephophobia - Fear of clouds
Nomatophobia - Fear of names
O
Octophobia - Fear of the number 8
Ommetaphobia - Fear of eyes
Oneirophobia - Fear of dreams
Ophthalmophobia - Fear of opening one’s eyes
Ostraconophobia - Fear of shellfish
P
Panophobia - Fear of everything
Papyrophobia - Fear of paper
Paraskavedekatriaphobia - Fear of Friday the 13th
Peladophobia - Fear of bald people
Phengophobia - Fear of daylight
Phobophobia - Fear of fear
Photophobia - Fear of light
Phronemophobia - Fear of thinking
Pogonophobia - Fear of beards
S
Sciophobia - Fear of shadows
Scolionophobia - Fear of school
Selenophobia - Fear of the moon
Siderophobia - Fear of stars
Sitophobia - Fear of food
Sophophobia - Fear of learning
Stasibasiphobia - Fear of walking
T
Thaasophobia - Fear of sitting
Trichopathophobia - Fear of hair
Triskadekaphobia - Fear of the number 13
V
Verbophobia - Fear of words
X
Xanthophobia - Fear of the color yellow
So see which kind of weird & funny phobia you suffer from & begin the healing process.
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