10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked | Southern Poverty Law Center

Contents:

• 15 STEREOTYP THAT LIM OUR PERCEPTNS OF GAY MEN
• GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
• GAY STEREOTYP AND THE PRSUR THAT LGBTQ+ PEOPLE N FEEL TO EHER ACCEPT OR REBEL
• STEREOTYP, EMOTNS, AND BEHAVRS TOWARD LBIANS, GAY MEN, BISEXUAL WOMEN, AND BISEXUAL MEN
• OP-ED: 6 GAY CLICHéS THAT ARE TOTALLY TE
• WHAT ABOUT THE GUYS WHO DO F THE 'GAY STEREOTYPE'?

15 STEREOTYP THAT LIM OUR PERCEPTNS OF GAY MEN

Stereotyp about gay men are stctive to both how society views , as well as to how we view society mak fun of and gras gay men for thgs that are patently unte, young gay men are left whout proper role mols, failed by a society that scrib them wh generalizatns. Stereotyp may be ground the tth or be plete and utter falsehoods, but they are dangero regardls of where they e opprsn and reprsn of gay men throughout history — om ancient tim and early Christiany to the morn AIDS crisis — has been rooted fear and falsi. Ever sce born-aga sger and orange juice pchwoman Ana Bryant helped kick off the ntemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-le elements of the relig right have been searchg for ways to monize gay people — or, at a mimum, to fd arguments that will prevent their normalizatn society.

But addn to hawkg that myth, the legns of anti-gay activists who followed have add a panoply of others, rangg om the extremely doubtful claim that sexual orientatn is a choice, to unalloyed li like the claims that gay men molt children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalizatn of btialy and necrophilia.

Depictg gay men as a threat to children may be the sgle most potent weapon for stokg public fears about homosexualy — and for wng electns and referenda, as Ana Bryant found out durg her succsful 1977 mpaign to overturn a Da County, Fla., ordance barrg discrimatn agast gay people.

GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?

The Amerin Amy of Child & Adolcent Psychiatry affirmed 2013 that “[c]urrent rearch shows that children wh gay and lbian parents do not differ om children wh heterosexual parents their emotnal velopment or their relatnships wh peers and adults” and they are “not more likely than children of heterosexual parents to velop emotnal or behavral problems.

The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics (AAP) a 2002 policy statement clared: "A growg body of scientific lerature monstrat that children who grow up wh one or two gay and/or lbian parents fare as well emotnal, gnive, social, and sexual functng as do children whose parents are heterosexual. The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn noted a 2000 fact sheet available on the Associatn of Gay and Lbian Psychiatrists, that alg wh gay, lbian and bisexual issu, that sexual abe do not appear to be any more prevalent among children who grow up and intify as gay, lbian or bisexual than children who grow up and intify as heterosexual. Siarly, the Natnal Organizatn on Male Sexual Victimizatn not on s webse that "experts the human sexualy field do not believe that premature sexual experienc play a signifint role late adolcent or adult sexual orientatn" and add that 's unlikely that anyone n make another person gay or heterosexual.

Anti-LGBT anizatns, seekg to promote heterosexualy as the healthier "choice, " often offer up the purportedly shorter life spans and poorer physil and mental health of gays and lbians as reasons why they shouldn't be allowed to adopt or foster children.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

Anti-gay activists, who have long opposed addg LGBT people to those protected by hate crime legislatn, have repeatedly claimed that such laws would lead to the jailg of relig figur who preach agast homosexualy — part of a bid to ga the backg of the broar relig muny for their posn. Anti-gay groups have been adamantly opposed to allowg gay men and lbians to serve openly the armed forc, not only bee of their purported fear that bat reads will be unrmed, but bee the ary has long been nsired the purt merocracy Ameri (the armed forc were succsfully racially tegrated long before Amerin civil society, for example).

At the same time, gays and lbians have served openly for years the armed forc of 25 untri (as of 2010), cludg Bra, Israel, South Ai, Canada and Atralia, acrdg to a report released by the Palm Center, a policy thk tank at the Universy of California at Santa Barbara. Though is te that LGBT people tend to suffer higher rat of anxiety, prsn, and prsn-related illns and behavrs like alhol and dg abe than the general populatn, that is due to the historil social stigmatizatn of homosexualy and vlence directed at LGBT people, not bee of homosexualy self. A report prented by the Council on Scientific Affairs to the AMA Hoe of Delegat Interim Meetg wh regard to reparative (“ex-gay”) therapy noted that most of the emotnal disturbance gay men and lbians experience around their sexual inty is not based on physlogil , but rather on “a sense of alienatn an unacceptg environment.

GAY STEREOTYP AND THE PRSUR THAT LGBTQ+ PEOPLE N FEEL TO EHER ACCEPT OR REBEL

Mark Hatzenbuehler, a socmedil scienc profsor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia Universy, said that the data gathered the study suggts that “sexual mori livg muni wh high levels of anti-gay prejudice have creased risk of mortaly, pared to low-prejudice muni.

Qazi Rahman, study -thor and a leadg scientist on human sexual orientatn, said: "This study puts ld water on any ncerns that we are lookg for a sgle 'gay gene' or a sgle environmental variable which uld be ed to 'select out' homosexualy — the factors which fluence sexual orientatn are plex. The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics stated 1993 (updated 2004) that “homosexualy has existed most societi for as long as rerd scriptns of sexual beliefs and practic have been available” and that even at that time, “most scholars the field state that one’s sexual orientatn is not a choice … dividuals do not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual. A number of "ex-gay" relig mistri have spng up recent years wh the aim of teachg gay people to bee heterosexuals, and the have bee prime purveyors of the claim that gays and lbians, wh the aid of mental therapy and Christian teachgs, n "e out of homosexualy.

Arguments raged among stylists and the gay muny over whether the Kardashians were drsed full mp regalia (note: Kris Jenner was mp already), along wh Jared Leto and Harry n, of urse, be found almost anywhere – om old black-and-whe mils to Eurovisn – but this event was an unprecented celebratn of mp the mastream. “It’s absolutely shockg I end up beg gay, ” he said wryly, rercg the ia that some tast are perceived to be typilly MP Chris Bryant (Photo: Oli Srff/Getty Imag)When I was rearchg my book Queer Intentns, which explor how far LGBTQ+ acceptance really extends, I met gay men om the Middle East who wanted to exprs a more mp si of their character but uldn’t out of fear for their safety, alongsi gay men om the US who felt “trapped” by the ia that they might need to be flamboyant orr to somehow f as gay. He explas that, growg up gay London the 80s, he reacted to threats by eher beg mp, flamboyant and funny – “playg up to a gay cliché so that people would lgh at me stead of hurtg me” – or else he “beme far ‘ls gay’” so that people would not hurt him.

STEREOTYP, EMOTNS, AND BEHAVRS TOWARD LBIANS, GAY MEN, BISEXUAL WOMEN, AND BISEXUAL MEN

There are untls labels to scribe one’s genr or sexualy (Facebook has 76 genr optns) and gay culture is largely embraced by the mastream – jt look at the astronomil populary of the TV show RuPl’s Drag and fellow producers at the Crics’ Choice Real TV Awards Beverly Hills (Photo: Alberto E. We are gradually movg beyond the one-dimensnal reprentatns that he, part, blam for perpetuatg the stereotype: the “sissy” characters popular early Hollywood films, and the 70s and 80s films where gay men were eher viants or killers or else victims of vlence.

Homophobia, stigma (negative and ually unfair beliefs), and discrimatn (unfairly treatg a person or group of people) agast gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex wh men still exist the Uned Stat and n negatively affect the health and well-beg of this muny. Dpe the persistence of stereotyp that portray lbian, gay, and bisexual people as disturbed, several s of rearch and clil experience have led all mastream medil and mental health anizatns this untry to nclu that the orientatns reprent normal forms of human experience.

Helpful rpons of a therapist treatg an dividual who is troubled about her or his same sex attractns clu helpg that person actively pe wh social prejudic agast homosexualy, succsfully rolve issu associated wh and rultg om ternal nflicts, and actively lead a happy and satisfyg life. The phrase “g out” is ed to refer to several aspects of lbian, gay, and bisexual persons’ experienc: self-awarens of same-sex attractns; the tellg of one or a few people about the attractns; wispread disclosure of same-sex attractns; and intifitn wh the lbian, gay, and bisexual muny.

OP-ED: 6 GAY CLICHéS THAT ARE TOTALLY TE

If they are a heterosexual relatnship, their experienc may be que siar to those of people who intify as heterosexual unls they choose to e out as bisexual; that se, they will likely face some of the same prejudice and discrimatn that lbian and gay dividuals enunter.

This victim-blamg posns LGBTQ2 youth as a problem that needs to be fixed, rather than focg on the environment of homophobia, transphobia, and heteronormativy that creat a climate where is OK to discrimate agast and target those who are perceived to be different.

[6] The word may be ed as a noun, to refer to a woman who intifi herself, or is characterized by others, as havg the primary attribute of female homosexualy; or as an adjective, to characterize an object or activy related to or associated wh lbianism.

WHAT ABOUT THE GUYS WHO DO F THE 'GAY STEREOTYPE'?

Homosexual men are often equated terchangeably wh heterosexual women by the heterocentric mastream and are equently stereotyped as beg effemate, [15] spe the fact that genr exprsn, genr inty and sexual orientatn are wily accepted to be distct om each other.

[38] The perceptn that a greater proportn of gay than straight men are pedophil is one ntributg factor to discrimatn agast gay teachers spe the stark ntrast to statistil figur, which have generally revealed that upwards of 80–90% of male pedophil are heterosexual and ually married wh children of their own, [39][40] and actual figur on pedophilic acts show that most stanc (generally over 90%) of child sexual abe are perpetrated by heterosexual mal havg non-nsensual sexual terurse wh unrage femal.