HOMOPHOBIA - AN EVOLUTIONARY ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT AS APPLIED TO NURSING

Homophobia is a socially accepted, culturally based belief, which is h eavily influenced by an individual's or a community's inherent attitud es, beliefs and values. This conceptual analysis of homophobia has end eavoured to review existing literature on homophobia and subsequently identify and examine the phobic constituents of the concept. Reference s to homophobia are mostly from the 1970-1980 period and there is much unacknowledged conceptual baggage that accompanies the term, which re sults in restrictive and inappropriate ideas about this concept. This is mainly the consequence of comparisons of homophobia to other phobia s, which directly infers fear of homosexuals, while in reality homopho bia is more of a biased disgust at homosexuals' lifestyles. This paper attempts to re-conceptualize homophobia so that empirical research ca n begin to test the critical attributes of the concept, This forms the basis for the development of a comprehensive social psychological the ory of attitudes towards homosexuals. Such a theory would transcend th e unilateral and unidimensional concept of homophobia as a fear and he lp the understanding of attitudes and feelings towards homosexuals.