Homophobia is an extreme aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people. The media portrays many stereotypes of gay and lesbian people, influencing public views. There are also legal issues around gay rights like marriage, which was a topic in the recent US presidential election. For celebrities and public figures, publicly coming out as gay can negatively impact their careers, though some like Ellen DeGeneres have gained fans from it. Homophobia remains an issue in everyday life, though attitudes are improving over time.

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’Gradyand 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 for ‘Lesbians Under 30’ etc all over the internet
show that being straight and gay are completely different types of people.