What is Homophobia?
Homophobia is a resentment or fear of gay and lesbian people. At its most benign it's voiced as a passive dislike of gay people. At its most destructive it involves active victimisation.
Such attitudes can also impact upon anyone who is perceived to be gay or lesbian, someone who has an association with gay people or one who does not conform to stereotypical expectations of masculine or feminine behaviour.
Homophobia presents itself in young people as the fear of and the reaction to an issue about which they can have little understanding and to a person perceived as "different".
- Homophobic bullying is endemic in British schools
- Four in five secondary school teachers say they are aware of verbal homophobic bullying
- One in four secondary teachers is aware of physical homophobic bullying
- Just 6 percent of British schools have fully inclusive anti-bullying policies which address homophobic bullying