Theme: Culture & Ethics Unit: Homophobia and Gay Marriage

In general, refers to the unfounded fear of homosexual individuals, of their sexual behavior, and of gay and lesbian communities. Often turns to discrimination and deep- seated hatred, including violence against individuals and groups who may be lesbian, gay (male homosexual), or transgender. Closely associated with the women's rights movement and struggles for sexual liberation

The word "homophobia" has been widely used since the 1970s. Especially since the Stonewall Inn rebellion on June 28 and 29, 1969, in New York City, Hundreds of men and women rioted against police harassment and extortion of the patrons of the Stonewall Inn gay bar in Greenwich Village.

Individual/Interpersonal, Institutional, Cultural/Social Individual/interpersonal level: involves an individual's fear of someone else's homosexuality and may also include people's fear that they may come to be attracted to their own gender. Related to heterosexism, or the idea that all social and sexual life is heterosexualthe social and sexual relations between a woman and a man. Heterosexism assumes that there is only one "right" way to function as a man and as a woman. Homophobia at this level sometimes leads to name-calling

Homophobic name-calling often leads to "gay bashing" acts of violence against homosexual individuals or those thought to be homosexual. Such violent acts are as much "hate crimes" as are those targeted at individuals because of their race, religion, ethnicity, mental or physical disability, or gender. Since the 1970s, gay rights groups such as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund have recorded an increasing number of violent attacks against gay, lesbian, and transgender communities in the United States.

Institutional level: refers to how institutions, employers, and organizations discriminate on the basis of sexuality. Most state and federal laws, for example, do not include sexuality or sexual orientation as a basis for protection against discrimination in Employment and attacks of violence. In March 1999, for example, a Bakersfield school district in California was ordered by the state's Labor Commission to apologize to an award-winning science teacher for removing fifteen students from his class because some parents did not want their children in a gay teacher's class.

Cultural and social level: helps create collective negative attitudes and beliefs against lesbian, gay, and transgender communities. In their advertisement and programming, the media have portrayed heterosexuality as the only possible norm, and have by and large underreported and ridiculed all other forms of sexual or erotic expression. "Effeminate" and "ineffectual" men in television and motion pictures often bring ridicule to gay characters.

Focused on creating spaces where they can socialize and organize safely, without fear of harm by homophobic individuals or groups. Activists have emphasized that guaranteeing legal protection and rights for gays and lesbians must be part of a tradition of civil rights for all, and that these should not be considered "special rights." Recently, gay marriage has been on the forefront of these civil rights.

39 -- The number of states that have banned same-sex marriage The number of states that allow civil unions between same-sex couples, but not marriage. 1, The number of federal benefits to marriage The year that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to criminalize sodomy The number of U.S. states that allow same-sex marriage. However, due to the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize the same-sex marriages in these states. Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, plus Washington D.C. Most recently in this election: Washington, Maryland, & Maine

3.5% -- The approx. percentage of Americans identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA. 68% -- The percentage of Americans opposed to gay marriage in 1996, according to a Gallup poll. 646, The number of same-sex-couple households in the U.S. in 2010, according to the U.S. census. 48% -- The percentage of Americans opposed to gay marriage in 2012, according to a Gallup poll.

80.4% -- The percentage growth of same-sex couple households in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census. 1.8% -- The percentage of households in the District of Columbia comprised of same-sex couples, the highest in the nation. 7% - Approximate percentage of same-sex couple households that live in states that recognize same- sex marriage, as of , Number of same-sex couple households in the U.S. with children, according to the U.S. census.

While the United States is engaged in debate on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Canadians legalized it in 2007 and many European countries have adopted or are adopting civil unions for gay couples. France and Germany have civil union laws, and Britain is in the process of adopting them The year that the Netherlands made same- sex marriage legal, the first country in the world to so The number of countries worldwide where same-sex marriage is legal.

In Denmark, civil unions with the same rights as marriage have been around since 1989, and other Nordic countries followed suit in the 1990s. The Dutch were the first to eliminate any distinction between gay and straight, striking all references to gender in the marriage laws. Belgium soon did the same.

In most of Africa, homosexuality is illegal and gay marriage unthinkable. But in South Africa, gay rights were enshrined in the post-apartheid constitution and some groups are lobbying for the right to marry. In Japan, homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness, but many gays still feel pressure to go through a sham heterosexual marriage. Japan however is more progressive than most of Asia.

Strongly Roman Catholic countries such as Italy refuse to recognize gay couples, following the Vatican's abhorrence of homosexuality. However, in Portugal, and in Spain's Navarra and Basque regions, gay couples who live together long enough receive the same benefits as heterosexuals under common law unions. In Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, gay couples can register for a civil union.

Horacio N. Roque Ramírez. (2000). Homophobia. In W. E. Martin, Jr. & P. Sullivan (Eds.), Civil Rights in the United States (Vol. 1). New York: Macmillan Reference USA. 2 Jul Caitlin Stark. By the numbers: Same-sex marriage. CNN Library. same-sex-marriage/index.html: 2 Jul same-sex-marriage/index.html Toby Sterling.The Global View Of Gay Marriage. CBS News World html. 2 Jul 2012http:// html