GLOSSARY

Ablism.

This is prejudice toward people with regard to physical and mental disabilities. Assumptions and stereotypes can create barriers just as impassable for people with any type of disability as stairsteps can be for a person using a wheelchair. Ablism creates and perpetuates images of people with disabilities as unable: unable to be independent, unable to work, unable to do or be like people (apparently) without disabilities. Ablist stereotypes focus on the image of a person's disability as a defining quality and a reason for keeping them separate from others. For more information on this type of prejudice and information concerning people with disablities, go to the Links page.

Agent.

One that acts or has the power to act; one that acts as the representative of another. (The American Hertiage Dictionary, Second College Edition). In the case of homophobia and other types of prejudice, the agent can be a person or an institutional device. When a person expresses an attitude of prejudice against a targeted group of people, or a member of such a group, that person is acting to perpetuate a power imbalance created by prejudice against the group. The agent's behavior represents socially established intolerance toward the group and its members. When a law, regulation or custom discriminates against a group of people, the agent is institutional.

Antilocution.

This is a term, coined by Gordon Allport in The Nature of Prejudice, meaning specifically prejudiced words, phrases, or styles of speech. This would include homophobic or racial epithets and stereotypes or other kinds of defamation. A current term that means the same thing is “hate speech.”

Defamation.

An attack upon a group or class of people, usually in the media or some forum of public expression, through derogatory misrepresentation or stereotyping of the members of the group or class.

Defamation by omission.

Misrepresentation through nonrepresentation of a group or class of people. This term applies to situations, such as a human sexuality or social history class, where issues of sexual orientation are relevant but not discussed, effectively silencing the perspectives of sexual minority people.

Homophobia.

Hostility toward people with non-heterosexual orientations demonstrated by personal attitudes, expressions, and behaviors of defamation, avoidance, discrimination, and/or physical violence or threats against lesbian/gay/bisexual people and their allies.

Intervene.

To enter a situation in order to change it. In the case of intervening against homophobia, this means actively addressing prejudice against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people by interrupting its expression, demonstrating support for the person(s) targeted by the prejudice, and acting to prevent a recurrence of the prejudiced expression.

Lesbian/gay/bisexual.

People whose sexual orientation is not exclusively toward members of the sex other than their own, or people who are not exclusively heterosexual. Lesbians are women attracted to women. Gay men are attracted to men. Bisexual women and men are attracted to members of both sexes.

Recognize.

To identify something by its characteristic features. In the case of homophobia, this means identifying stereotypes and myths about lesbian, gay, and bisexual people as expressions of prejudice even though the content may not be inherently derogatory. It also means identifying situations in which discussion of sexual orientation issues would be appropriate but has been omitted. And it means identifying ways in which the needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are not given consideration equal to that of heterosexual people in terms of resources or opportunities.

Sexual orientation.

The direction of one’s sexual and affectional feelings or attraction, erotic thoughts, fantasies and desires regarding another person in terms of that person's sex or gender. This can be toward members of one’s own sex, members of the other sex, or toward members of either sex. A person with a homosexual orientation is attracted to members of her or his own sex. A person with a bisexual orientation is attracted to members of either sex. A person with a heterosexual orientation is attracted to members of the sex other than their own.

Target.

This term refers to an identified group of people or an individual, based on their membership in such a group, who have been made an object of prejudice. A person acting as an agent of prejudice targets a group or individual for negative treatment according to the particular prejudice, be it homophobia, racism, ablism or many other possibilities.