Homophobia is defined only as an “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals.” There are no standards, limits, or little check boxes that have to be said and done for somebody to be considered homophobic. This past week, our nation has dealt with the tragic loss of 49 lives at the hands of someone who acted on his homophobic views.
Now, clearly homophobia was not his only motive; the shooter, Omar Mateen, was also influenced by racism and was reported to have ISIS ties. As such, this mass shooting is being primarily classified as both an act of terror and a hate crime. However, homophobia was what prompted him to choose Pulse, a gay nightclub. Racism was what prompted him to choose Latinx night at the club. It would be remiss to sweep these two facts under the rug to only classify this solely as an act of terrorism, rather than a hate crime.
Mateen was confirmed as being homophobic after becoming angry at two gay men kissing in Miami some months ago. His family has confirmed him as having very radical views in that respect, and also as using anti-black slurs and saying he wanted to kill black people. Yet, many people would like to frame this as something else entirely or leave the motives up to speculation. This article will focus on the nation’s response to homophobia.
On a Sky News Press Preview, two popular commentators dismissed the idea that this may have been a hate crime, saying the shooter could “have been angered by many other things since [Mateen witnessed the two men kissing].” They followed this by telling the other commentator, who is a member of the LGBT+ community, that he did not have ownership of this crime.
Exchanges like this one are actually dangerous for the toxic environment surrounding the LGBT+ community and does more to promote homophobia than condemn it. It is a perfect example of how the straight community talks over members of the LGBT+ community to deny them the right to feel threatened and personally affected by a crime that is directly related to them and their identities. These actions also ignore the root of the problem, which is how Mateen managed to be radically homophobic without this being seen as a real issue or threat.
But in today’s society, homophobia is not dealt with properly and as harshly as it deserves. We live in a society where Donald Trump can be casually offensive in almost every comment he makes about the LGBT+ community and still have supporters. Where twitter responses to the Pulse shootings call the victims “perverts” and call it an “effective shooting.” By not condemning this shooting immediately, by giving it even a fraction of doubt that it could have been motivated by hate towards the LGBT+ community, we have not done our jobs as members of this nation. We have left the door slightly ajar for radical homophobia to take root in the future.
Additionally, the next popular response to this mass shooting has been to push it off on the American Muslim community. There have been copious articles and calls for them to take responsibility for Omar Mateen’s actions and homophobia, as he was from an Islamic family. However, those close to him have disproved the fact that he was a religious man. His claims to ISIS prove nothing, as it has been said time and time again that ISIS is not representative of the Islamic community. This is not a problem for the Islamic community, it is a problem for us all.
Mateen was a noted member of the Pulse nightclub and had accounts with several gay dating apps. This changes nothing. He may have been a closeted gay or bisexual man, but that does not make his homophobia any less apparent. He still exhibited hatred of gay men kissing in public, he still made many homophobic comments, and he still chose to kill 49 people in a LGBT+ nightclub, of all the places he could have chosen. He may have had self-hatred, but that is hatred nonetheless.
We, as a nation, need to do better and take ownership of our problem of radicalized homophobia, instead of ignoring it, pushing it off, or attempting to explain it away.
