1. Homophobia: An extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people.
The media holds many problems for men, women and especially homosexual and lesbian
males/females. Conflicts views are everywhere you go in the media, on the news, movies,
books and in politics, different portrayals and stereotypes can be seen everywhere. The media
has a major impact on the public, by publishing stories about gay people and people reading
them, they are moulding peoples view on gay
people.
There are legal issues within the world; gay
marriage is legal throughout the United
Kingdom, whereas in the United States of
America there are many states which have a
ban on gay marriage causing trouble for
many people.
Gay marriage was centre of attention with
the election that has just been in America
alongside with many other issues such as
economy, health and terrorism. Coverage of
speech‟s made by Obama and Romney
reached most of the population of America therefore having a massive impact on people‟s
views. As Obama and Romney are huge personals they have a great influence, if you‟re
support Romney throughout the election you will agree with what Romney believes in which
is against gay couples and marriage. It is very rare that gay people have the support of major
politicians such as Obama, who will stand up and speak for gay rights.
It is difficult for people „coming out‟ in normal life situations to people who will love them
for who they are; their family and friends. The whole „coming out‟ circumstance changes
when you‟re in the public eye 24/7, stories changed and moulded to create entertainment for
the public, people using your nervousness of revealing such a massive thing about yourself to
make a good story in the media. Watching a television show „Most Shocking…‟ there was
numerous of interviews with directors of movies, actors, publishers big in the business all
stating that „if anyone in the public light was to publicity announce that they were in fact gay,
they would lose a lot of fans and work‟. Ellen DeGeneres, is the main actress/presenter to go
against this saying. She has gained more fans due to the fact of coming out but is known by
many people as „the lesbian on television‟ so there is a negatives to the come with the
positives. Homophobia is on the downfall but it is
still part of everyday life, many gay people are tried
different as it hits the world news, for example,
Jaymi Hensley off X Factor revealed he was gay during an
interview and it went all over the news. Many people say
they don‟t treat homosexual people different to straight
people but if this was true, it shouldn‟t hit world news
and homosexual should be accepts for who they are,
having courage for someone to „come out‟ and reveal
their sexually is a big thing and the only thing making it
worse for the celebrities is the press writing stories about it. There are differences between
the UK and USA for people in the public light as there are many more people in the UK who
are openly gay, where „camp‟ is their stage persona, the likes of David Williams (UK) – a
straight actor and comedian married to a blonde glamorous women, but gives off the image
that he is gay. Alan Carr, Paul O‟Grady and Gok Wan (UK) - openly gay men who play on
the „camp‟ effect and are all home names. Neil Patrick Harris (USA) – in an open gay

2. marriage, he played major parts in the „How I Met Your Mother‟ where he is shown getting
with many women. Whereas, with homosexual women, it is very rare that a women would
„come out‟ even if the women as too come out there are very few that are in the public eye
like males. The fact that there are websites to show lesbians in the media such as „Lesbians
Under 30‟ etc all over the internet proves that being straight and gay are completely different
types of people.
On to homophobia in sport, Gareth Thomas was the first sports man to become open about
being gay in 2009. Studies show that 75% of people
have heard of „homophobic banter‟ in sport and 25%
of lesbian, gay and bisexual members of sport said
that they felt isolated due to their sexuality. There was
massive amounts of coverage when, Gareth Thomas,
took the leap to express his personal life, he says
"People at home see these stereotyped characters of
gay people
that are
camp and very funny and assume that's what every
gay person is like.” Gareth Thomas starred in
Celebrity Big Brother but during his time in the big
brother house and talks about him being a
homosexual there was many homophobic tweets
about him e.g. ““I wouldn‟t fancy the bed next to
Gareth Thomas. #padlock my a**e,”
As the media make such a big thing about a man or
women „coming out‟ it makes it much more
difficult for someone to be openly gay. Frank
Ocean, an America singer, songwriter was the first
person on the hip hop scene to admit „my first love
was a man‟ the was a divide in fans and the media
across the world, many supporting and respecting
Frank Ocean for expressing himself and many
against him for saying about his past.
In my opinion, whether a person is gay, bisexual, lesbian or straight it makes no difference to
who you are, inside or out. There are numerous people who also have this view on
homosexual people. There has been a small change in homophobia with it on the decrease
and people becoming more accepted but I don‟t think that it will ever be 100% accepted
worldwide for a person to be gay or lesbian. I see it everyday, people building up the courage
to tell the ones close to them, or those on social networking websites the truth about their
sexuality and they‟re forever getting questioned about it and treated differently. There has
been many campaign‟s for the gay, bisexual and lesbian community. YouTube have a „my
coming out story‟ which is full of advice and stories to help other people going through the
same thing. There is always going to be a divide between gay and straight people. The media
making such a story out of celebrities being gay isn‟t going to encourage people telling the
nation/world about themselves it is a personal matter, which doesn‟t need to be public. Social
networking sites also need to do more to crack down on homophobic as the most common
bullying phrase is using „gay‟ as an insult when really it is a lifestyle for many people.
“gay, lesbian and bisexual people are people”