What is Heterosexism?

Abstract

The bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub was the third in a series of bombings in the spring of 1999 against ‘minority’ populations in London by a member of a right-wing extremist organisation. The previous two bombs, which targeted the Bangladeshi community in Brick Lane and the African-Caribbean community in Brixton, had mercifully exploded without loss of life. The third bomb had been planted to achieve maximum carnage in Soho, London’s lesbian and gay district: three people died and many more were seriously injured. Such extreme forms of anti-gay violence have come to be known as homophobic attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities and, in the case of the Soho bomb, their heterosexual friends. Homophobia gives name to hate crimes (such as so-called queer bashing), the bullying of young lesbians and gay men in schools, the killing of David Morley — himself a survivor of the Soho bomb — and recently, of Jody Dubrowski in London. The term is widely used in the social and scientific literature and is in common, everyday usage. Yet, despite shared understanding of the word homophobia, there are some important limitations surrounding its use.