The roots of homophobia — cultural perspective

It’s 2019 and million people across the world celebrate the differences among them, they celebrate love in all its forms, embrace diversity and have high hope for the future, millions of us rejoice and become part of the ‘pride’ wearing the colours of the rainbow.

However, as millions celebrate, many others show mockery, disrespect and regard all of this as another child of capitalism, another evil production of democracy and globalization. At first glance, it seems ridiculous and ineffable such things to happen, but we live in the 21st century and still, we have to learn how to embrace diversity and be open to all differences. In some countries homophobic feelings can be so strong that the people who should be proud of themselves have to hide and fear on daily basis, the purpose of this article is to explore the homophobic feelings towards LGBT communities from a cultural perspective and to explain to a certain extent the roots of the problem.

According to EU’s survey, which interviewed 93,000 people in 2012, the top countries in EU where the homophobic feelings towards the LGBT communities are extremely high are Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria (BBC,2013). It is really painful for me as my country is among them, even though five years later and pride parade in Sofia happened, judging from the Facebook posts and comments, not so much have changed. It is unfathomable to me why so many people express such hatred and strong feelings of disgust towards other people without any reasonable explanation of what’s so ever.

There must be a logical explanation behind it, mainly from a cultural perspective. For that reason, I would like to mention two case studies, one of them is based on the homophobic feelings in Russia, the other Czechia.

Russia’s history of homosexuality

Homosexuality in Russia hasn’t been always a taboo, in fact, it has a very diverse history with its ups and downs, during the czarist Russia up until 1917, same-sex was not prohibited, especially among men, the only restriction had been imposed upon the soldiers with the introduction of the Military Articles (Peter’s Code). During the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia enjoyed a great level of social and sexual liberation, it became second to France in regards to the freedom of sexual expression at that time, many numbers of the Communist party were known to be with a homosexual orientation.

However, despite the major progress, after Stalin came to power things took a U-turn, with the legislation of the Article 121 which stated that same-sex relationship is to be deemed as a “crime against society”. Moreover, there was a considerable difference between how men and women had been treated according to their crimes, men, if accused of any type of sign of a homosexual relationship, are sentenced to five years prison in a camp, while women were supposed to be “cured” in the hospital. Meanwhile, no mention of homosexuality is to be made in public, in any art form as if it didn’t exist at all.

After 1999, the Health Minister declared that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and some radical changes had taken place, despite that the law concerning same-sex marriage is not the fairest one. For example, it is not prohibited by law to have sexual intercourse with 17-years old individual if it is heterosexual, but if it is with 17-years old individual with the same sex is subject to seven years imprisonment.

Despite the fact that today there is an open debate about LGBT rights, transgender, and sexuality, the majority of the population in Russia is averse to opening up in regards to their sexuality in the workplace or at home.

According to a study conducted in 2009, which include individuals from LGBT community living in Moscow,St Petersburg and Novosibirsk who were subjected to oppression during the communist regime, indicates that there is a confusion among the young people when they realize they may have different social orientation, that is followed by repressed feelings and inability to express yourself. Moreover, the participants in the interviews described the dire consequences of being with homosexual orientation in Russia, namely experiencing social exclusion, people start treating you in a different way, seeing you in a negative light. Many of the participants confessed the majority of the Russian population associate the homosexuality with “ sickness” an “abnormality”.

Moreover, another reason behind the negative image of homosexuality was the prevalent censorship on the subject in general, even about heterosexual marriage. Sex had been an elephant in the room, everybody knows that it is there, but no one talks about it. Another example of hostility can be viewed in the violent and aggressive way the medical professionals treated transgender individual, the respondents indicated that they did it due to ignorance or fear.

Another study indicates that in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the high level of homophobia can be explained through the prism of the communism and factors like low political participation and lack of social trust played a crucial role.

Czechia

A recent study indicates that in Czechia, the young population has a considerably favorable attitude towards the LGBT communities and homosexuality in general, a recent study indicates (Spilkova and Pitoňák,2015). The participants in the study were between 14–15 years old and 35 schools were involved, more than 66% hold favourable attitude LGBT individuals and less than 2% of them said that they would change schools if some of their classmates were homosexuals.

The information provided at school is said to be of vital importance, as the students who took sexual education classes are more positive towards different sexual orientations and the level of acceptance.

Rather interestingly, the study indicates that the children coming from less educated and economically poor families are more predisposed towards homophobia and prejudice. Furthermore, children who live with only one parent are more likely to be less prejudiced and more open-minded than those who live in a traditional nuclear family.

This study puts into different perspective the factors at stake when it comes to homophobic feelings and hatred, are these social factors the roots of the enmity towards LGBT, if yes, how we can change them then? I would like to believe that these negative emotions are subject to change in the near future, we have the tools we only need the courage to do it. We can be more tolerant and more accepting regardless of our past, the future is what that matters.

What we have learned so far, it is not about forgetting our past and turning away from our identity, it is about preserving the things that need to be preserved and moving forward, adapting, evolving rather than remaining in past entirely.