12 Reasons Homophobia Doesn’t Make Sense

Sydney Moriarty, Junior Editor and Chief

“Kids need a mom and dad.”

  • Plenty of kids grow up without a mom and dad, including kids in the foster system, people with divorced parents, people with one parent, people whose parents have passed away, and many more reasons. 
  • Saying this reaffirms gender stereotypes. 

“They won’t have kids.”

  • Just because some people can’t biologically conceive a child does not mean that they cannot or will not have kids. Some straight couples also can’t conceive. There is more than one way to have a child, one of these ways being adoption. 

“It will turn the kids gay.”

  • LGBTQIIA+ people were children once, who grew up surrounded by heterosexual couples and cis-characters their entire lives, and yet they still didn’t turn out het-cis, so clearly the media you’re exposed to does not affect someone’s identity or sexuality. 

“It’s against my religion.”

  • In the Bible, it is clear that Jesus says to love God and love your neighbor. It does not say to love your straight neighbor, it says neighbor in general. 
  • “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. “This is the first and great commandment. “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37–39).

“It’s not traditional.”

  • Women, people of color, and non-rich people voting was untraditional as well. 
  • Co-ed and co-race schools were untraditional as well.
  • Democracy was untraditional as well.
  • But monarchies, selling your daughter off at fourteen, and living to thirty were considered traditional. 

“It’s not scientific/natural.”

  • If it wasn’t “scientific” or “natural,” then all other animals would be heterosexual. 
  • One out of many examples of same sex couple penguins are Roy and Silo who partnered together in 1998. Find more at: Tufts University.

“It’s a phase, you’ll grow out of it”

  • Many people have come out years ago but have not changed their minds.
  • Check out my interview with Bear McHugh where we talk about this here: Interview with Bear McHugh
  • On top of this, many older people are LGBTQIIA+ who have not come out of the “phase”. 

“It doesn’t make sense.”

  • Just because you don’t understand something does not mean that you should hate and discriminate against the people who are in that group. Instead you should try to learn more about the subject to educate yourself. 

“It’s a choice”

  • Why would someone choose to be part of a marginalized group? Especially in countries where you can be killed or thrown in jail for being part of this group. 

“Why can’t straight people have a flag/pride month.”

  • Most of the months that stand for someone’s identity are created to stand up for and represent groups of people who have been discriminated against. Examples of these other than pride month (June) are Black History
  • In the history of the world, straight people have not been discriminated against. 

“Why are we celebrating pride when we could be celebrating our military.”

  • May is considered military appreciation month (military.com). 

“Cross dressing is inappropriate for children.”

  • “Traditionally” women wearing pants was considered inappropriate. 
  • The idea of cross dressing reaffirms gender stereotypes within clothing, which does not have a gender.