Man who created the term ‘homophobia’ dies aged 86
Psychotherapist George Weinberg, who invented the word “homophobia” has died aged 86, NewNowNext reports.
The word was coined while Weinberg was preparing to speak at a conference in 1965. Before the event, Weinberg told colleagues that his guest at an upcoming party was a lesbian woman, and they asked him to disinvite her.
Realising how his colleagues felt uncomfortable with the idea of being near a lesbian, he came up with the word.
Four years later, TIME magazine used the word on the cover while running a feature on gay issues, titled ‘The Homosexual in America’.
Speaking in 1998, Weinberg said: “I coined the word homophobia to mean it was a phobia about homosexuals. It was a fear of homosexuals which seemed to be associated with a fear of contagion, a few of reducing the things one thought for – home and family.”
He added, “It was a religious fear, and it had led to great brutality, as fear always does.”
Weinberg was a strong gay rights advocate and led the campaign to remove homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association’s handbook of psychological disorders in 1974.
Weinberg died in Manhattan on Monday (March 19) and his widow, Dianne Rowe, attributes the death to cancer.
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