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AP’s New Stylebook Bans the Word ’Homophobia’

by Jason St. Amand
National News Editor
Thursday Nov 29, 2012

The Associated Press announced this week that it has dropped the word "homophobia" from the newest addition of its StyleBook, Politico reports.

The widely used guide to English language usage discourages reporters from using a number of words, including "homophobia," "Islamophobia" and "ethnic cleansing." The online version of AP’s StyleBook states that words ending in "phobia" are "an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness." It calls "ethnic cleansing" a "euphemism" and adds that AP "does not use ’ethnic cleansing’ on its own. It must be enclosed in quotes, attributed and explained."

AP Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn told Politico that members of the AP don’t consider "homophobia" and the other terms to be "quite accurate."

"Homophobia especially -- it’s just off the mark. It’s ascribing a mental disability to someone, and suggests a knowledge that we don’t have," Minthorn told the website. "It seems inaccurate. Instead, we would use something more neutral: anti-gay, or some such, if we had reason to believe that was the case."

He added that AP wants to be "precise and accurate and neutral" when it comes to phrasing. The online StyleBook has been amended but the news agency’s physical book will be changed next year.

George Weinberg, who coined "homophobia" in his 1972 book "Society and the Healthy Homosexual," disagrees with AP’s decision to nix the word.

"I just want to go on record as disagreeing with the AP’s decision not to use ’homophobia,’ the word," he said. "I am a psychologist and author who coined the word a long time ago. It made all the difference to city councils and other people I spoke to. It encapsulates a whole point of view and of feeling. It was a hard-won word, as you can imagine. It brought me some death threats."

Weinberg wasn’t alone in his disapproval as Nathaniel Frank, the author of "Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America," said he also disagreed with the AP’s new guidelines.

"The ’mental illness’ part is surely too literal - no one accuses arachnophobes of needing an asylum," he said. "The term homophobia was first used in the 1960s when psychologists began to notice how vehement their own colleagues’ reactions were to gay people-far more irrational, it seemed, than feelings around other outsider groups.

"As Weinberg and others used it, the term meant a dread or fear of close contact with gay people and a strong discomfort with homosexuality," he added. "Not everyone who opposes gay rights has a phobia. At a practical level, it may be wise to throw the term homophobe around less, as calling people names is generally an ineffective way to change their minds."

Comments

  • Anonymous, 2012-11-29 10:42:25

    Big mistake. Just reading some of the drawn out, infused with disgust and biblical rhetoric comments posted here proves the words value and necessity in journalism. You can feel the anxiety, tension, conflict and even arousal in their time consuming diatribes.


  • Wayne Madden, 2012-11-29 16:57:25

    Frankly, any form of hate, regardless of the reasons and any kind of irrational fear of the different, whether it is a fear of LGBT people, Muslims or anyone else is a definite sign of mental illness. However, if the media does not feel homophobia is an appropriate term, then call it heterosexism - or better yet - just call it irrational discrimination and bigotry.


  • Daniel Cooley, 2012-11-29 18:30:25

    Wrong premise by AP. The phobias do not necessarily arise out of mental illness and are not mental illness in and of themselves. For example, someone who is afraid of high places (acrophobia) is not mentally ill (unless that person has a panic attack at a high place). Homophobia can be as simple as this: A mother in Walnut Creek, Calif, didn’t want a Pride parade in her town because she was afraid her children would see near-naked men riding on floats.


  • B. Allan Ross, 2012-12-01 04:29:29

    I like the accuracy of anti-gay discrimination, anti-lesbian crime, instead of homophobic discrimination, etc. I like to write accurately too, so I prefer the clarity and aim of the anti-what-they’re-against choice. Their style books evolve over time, and they are open to negotiation about their instructions for the journalists who work for them. Anti-homosexual, with no fuzzy edges, no psychosis necessary. BTW, the bigots often claim that their fear of getting fucked is natural, so we must be bad. Hey, it’s their asses that are puckering at the sight of us, not the other way around most of the time with these spun-heads whose obsessions with their own past, current or potential same-gender emotions keeps them stuck.


  • Daniel Cooley, 2012-12-01 15:06:39

    Ha!! Love your comment (after BTW), Allan. You are so, so right. THAT straight attitude is what must be overcome.


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