Homophobia. A misleading label

[Dotard]

Imagine if you will that any time the discussion over guns came up or this guy was in the same room with a gun, he began without being asked to express deep anxiety over being shot and wanted to get away from the gun. I would call that an disproportionate or inappropriate fear of guns.

There's the differance. '..express deep anxiety..' I'm talking about folks, like me, where there is only a discomfort, not 'deep anxiety'.

Even the second example, with his frothing diatribe over how he "doesn't swing that way" when nobody propositioned him or asked him, demonstrates an inappropriate fear.

'...frothing diatribe..' I am not speaking of such overt, properly classified, homophobia.

Phobias come in varying degrees of intensity but what distinguishes them from appropriate fears is on how real the danger is. If a gay man is stalking you, it's appropriate to fear for your safety. If you just happen to be in the presence of a gay man, it's not appropriate to have feelings of anxiety. I'm not sure what you mean by "uncomfortable" but that may be just a mild anxiety and therefore, at best, a mild phobia.

What distinguishes a phobia from mere dislike is an intense or extreme emotional reation. If a woman has a discomfort being in a room of men would you say she is menophobic with all the a priori presuppositions relating to motives?

Perhaps you could elaborate?

If you took a wrong turn into a unfamiliar neighborhood and saw what appeared to be gangs on the corners, broken down stripped cars, hobos around burning cans, would you not feel uncomfortable? Not really 'scared' cause you're all Steven Segal badass or something, just 'uncomfortable' and would prefer not to be in that neighborhood?

Ever been in a social situation (some kinda gathering, I don't know) and you realize ou have like zero in common with anyone there, don't really know anyone, would not that bored, 'antsie', wanting to leave feeling be called 'uncomfortable'? It's like if you ended up in a startrek convention and you absolutly do not like startrek, you're uncomfortable there, you don't have a "phobia" of startrek of any kind, not een a 'mild phobia'.

I don't know how else to explain it. [/quote]