Discrimination against gay men, sometimes called gayphobia, is a form of

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

prejudice, hatred, or bias specifically directed toward

gay men Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual men, bisexual and homoromantic men may dually identify as ''gay'' and a number of gay men also identify as ''queer''. Historic terminology for gay men has included ''Sexual inversion (sexology), in ...

, male

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

, or men who are

perceived Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sense, sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous ...

to be gay. This discrimination is closely related to ''

femmephobia ''Femmephobia'' is the denigration, silencing, and policing of femininity in any and all genders. It has to do with societal biases that attack people who behave like women, irrespective of gender identity. This bias can take many forms, inclu ...

'', which is the dislike of, or hostility toward, individuals who present as feminine, including gay and

effeminate Effeminacy or male femininity is the embodiment of feminine traits in boys or men, particularly those considered untypical of men or masculinity. These traits include roles, stereotypes, behaviors, and appearances that are socially associated wi ...

men. Discrimination against gay men can result from religion, prejudicial reactions to one's feminine

mannerisms In human behavior, a mannerism is a peculiar, distinctive habit of a person. In particular, the term refers to an affected or exaggerated speech or actions. Often mannerisms are subtle and subconscious. They may be expressed in body language, ...

, styles of

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

, and even

vocal register A vocal register is a range of tones in the human voice produced by a particular vibratory pattern of the vocal folds. These registers include modal voice (or normal voice), vocal fry, falsetto, and the whistle register. Registers originate in lar ...

. Within the

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

-community,

internalized Internalization may refer to: *Internalization (sociology) *Internalization (psychology) **Internalizing disorder *Internalization (biology) *Internalization theory **Internalization (economics) In economics, an externality is an indirect cost ...

issues around meeting social expectations of

masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there i ...

have been found among gay, bisexual, and transgender men. It is analogous to

lesbophobia Discrimination against lesbians, sometimes called lesbophobia, comprises various forms of prejudice and negativity towards lesbians as individuals, as couples, as a social group, or lesbianism in general. Based on the categories of sex, sexu ...

Discrimination in society

According to the

French government The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

, discrimination against gay men "is a form of homophobia that specifically affects men. Although it is primarily aimed at gay and bisexual men, it can also affect

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions ...

men who are perceived as homosexual. Gay men may be targets of physical aggression or devalued by stereotypes linked to feminisation and hypersexualisation." The journalist Pierre Bouvier described anti-gay male sentiment as parallel to

. Noting how these two different forms of homophobia operate in

Western cultures Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompasses the social nor ...

, he wrote,

There is very clearly a difference in mechanisms between gayphobia and lesbophobia, and this translates into different types of aggression. Where the collective imagination over-sexualizes gay men and exerts strong verbal and physical violence against boys and men who are not considered sufficiently masculine or heterosexual; for women, on the other hand, the assertion of their lesbian identity will be further disqualified, minimized, reduced to a fad, or even sexualized as a prelude to heterosexuality.

In 2002, there were at least 30 countries where female homosexuality was not explicitly criminalized, but male homosexuality was illegal. Compared to lesbians, gay men are more often victims of hate crimes and have more difficulty adopting children.

Queer theory

In French academia, queer theorists have examined the unique ways in which

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...

attempts to enforce both

and

heterosexuality Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or ...

on those with

male Male (Planet symbols, symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or Egg cell, ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot sexual repro ...

bodies. The French queer and race theorist

Louis-Georges Tin Louis-Georges Tin (born 1974) is a French academic, gay rights campaigner, and anti-racist activist. Tin is noted for initiating the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, now marked in over 130 countries across the world ...

examined discrimination against gay men, and the historical development of the various forms of LGBT-related phobias under the umbrella of ''homophobia''. He writes: In her 2017 text, ''The Women's Liberation Movement: Impacts and Outcomes'', the German gender historian noted that within the Western media landscape during the 1970s'

Gay Rights Movement Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBTQ people in society. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBTQ people and their i ...

, prejudice against gay men attracted more media attention than lesbophobia, largely due to the rhetoric of reactionary conservatives such as

Anita Bryant Anita Jane Bryant (March 25, 1940 – December 16, 2024) was an American singer and anti-gay rights activist. She had three top 20 hits in the United States in the early 1960s. She was the 1958 Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and a brand ...

, who suggested that gay men were sexual predators.

Academic studies

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

studies which break down and distinguish homophobia separately between discrimination against gay men and lesbians, researchers have found

statistically significant In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when a result at least as "extreme" would be very infrequent if the null hypothesis were true. More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the ...

differences between heterosexual men and women in regards to their attitudes toward gay men. While no statistically significant differences were found in men and women in regard to lesbians, heterosexual men do demonstrate statistically significant elevated levels of animosity toward men they perceive as gay.

Linguistics

Scholars have noted most

homophobic slurs LGBTQ slang, LGBTQ speak, queer slang, or LGBTQIA slang is a set of English language, English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBTQ people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of t ...

are specifically directed against gay men. Paul Baker of

Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

writes, "Many gay men have been subjected to bouts of name-calling, possibly from a time before they even realized what homosexuality was. The over-lexicalisation of pejorative terms for 'gay man' which exist (for example: ''

faggot ''Faggot'', often shortened to ''fag'', is a Pejorative, slur in the English language that was used to refer to gay men but its meaning has expanded to other members of the queer community. In American youth culture around the turn of the 21s ...

'', ''pansy'', ''puff'', ''shirt-lifter'', ''brown-hatter'', ''fairy'', ''batty-boy'', ''

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

'', etc.) is further testament to their status as 'target.'" Daniel Green (Vienna University of Economics and Business) has analyzed the Austrian Supreme Court’s (OGH) application of the concept of "same-sex fornication" in appeal cases between 1978 and 2014, uncovering systemic discrimination that primarily disadvantages gay men. His corpus-assisted study reveals how the OGH’s language conflates consensual same-sex relations with serious offenses like sexual coercion, perpetuating hetero-androcentric biases and marginalizing sexual minorities under the guise of "protection" and "prevention." These practices reflect institutionalized homophobia, with rulings reinforcing societal inequalities.

References

External links