In society, young homosexuals stand out above everyone else, dressing in loud clothes, having crazy hairstyles, and showing public displays of affection to their partners. Lesbians are often noted as having a more masculine persona, the “tom-boy” image. Male homosexuals often dress in a more feminine way, often dress to have more feminine figures, and often behave in the “camp” way. This may include being overly flirtatious, talking in a high-pitched voice, and socialising with mainly women. Society can find this too over powering, as the older generation are used to conservative dress and behaviour and sometimes homosexuals set out to break the trend.
Due to this differentiation from society, today people may discriminate against homosexuals, thinking they are boisterous and loud. However some men may be slightly jealous of gay men, as gay men often get on a lot better with women than “straight” heterosexual men. This jealousy can often turn into anger, and when a strictly straight man encounters a gay man, usually when alcohol is involved, the straight man will verbally and sometimes physically attack the gay man. Not only is jealousy involved, but also fright. A straight man in a bar could be scared that the gay man next to him will “come on” to him, and may feel obliged to frighten the homosexual man away by abuse.
Society also looks upon the act of homosexual lovemaking as disgusting, being unnatural and very different to what is regarded as normal. Also we must consider the scare for human health, due to how AIDS in Africa was believed to have spread because of homosexuals. This view is slowly fading away; however there are people that still believe all homosexuals carry AIDS or HIV.
To conclude, there are many reasons why society in general is against homosexuality, however each individual person has their own view. Homosexuals get very bad publicity, as we can see above some choose to exploit their behaviour in outrageous ways, giving a bad name to all homosexuals. Although homosexuality is not a new thing, (there is evidence it goes back to before the time of Jesus) the flamboyancy is fairly new. And all new things take time getting used to. So maybe that is why society condemns it, because it is new and unfamiliar. However, no matter whether it’s now or in 2000 years, there will always be some person or small group somewhere condemning homosexuality. But that’s the same with everything.
