Homophobia

Psychologist George Weinberg introduced the first scholarly use of the concept homophobia in his 1972 book Society and the Healthy Homosexual, published one year before the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Weinberg's "term became an important tool for gay and lesbian activists, advocates, and their allies." He describes the concept as:

a phobia about homosexuals. It was a fear of homosexuals which seemed to be associated with a fear of contagion, a fear of reducing the things one fought for—home and family. It was a religious fear and it had led to great brutality as fear always does.

Conceptualizing prejudice against gay and lesbian people as a social problem worthy of scholarly attention was not a new concept, but Weinberg was the first to give the problem a name