So I've been looking around on the religious thread for a while, and I saw a discussion between a few people that stated that Homophobia was a misnomer, and that it was really ignorance and bigotry.
Atleast, I think that's what was said, I am not to sure about it, so if you were involved in that discussion, please say so so that I can change this to what was actually said.

but wether I got the words right or not, it remains a valid point: bigots hide behind the word "homophobic" in order to disguise their ignorance and bigorty as fear.

To get a sense of how wrong the word homophobia is, heres the definition of phobia:
(Phobia From Wikipedia) A phobia (from the Greek: φόβος,phóbos, meaning "fear" or "morbid fear") is an irrational, intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive and unreasonable desire to avoid the feared stimulus. When the fear is beyond one's control, and if the fear is interfering with daily life, then a diagnosis under one of the anxiety disorders can be made.[1]

Does that sound at all like what Homophobes are? Are Homophobic people really, seriously and blindly AFRAID of homosexuals? So much so that it turns into a clinical fear?

Lets assume for a moment that thats true, that homophobes are people that are truely afraid of homosexuality, and just can't deal with it in life. If thats the case then there is an epicidemic gonig on, a widespread swath of gay-fear that covers a large portion of the world.

Now to be Fair: Homophobia may indeed be a real condition, there might really be people who are deathly afraid of gay people and just can't live with them; hey, if theres a fear of ducks, and a fear of water, theres probably a fear of gays.
But this percentage of the population would be THOUSANDS of times smaller then the number of people who claim to be or are labled "homophobic."

Meaning: I'm not saying we throw the word away, I'm saying we apply it to people who it actually applies to, and give the rest of people a more appropriate word like, oh i don't know, BIGOT.

Disclaimer: People against gay's may not neccisarily be bigots, but they may be misinformed and ignorant. This is in many ways better then other people, who realize theres nothing inherently wrong with homosexuality and still choose to go against it.
BUT STILL, in this modern age of google and wikipedia, of the internet, no person in a developed country has a reason to be malinformed about gay people, as all it takes is a two-minute google search to realize that we're perfectly normal people, and theres nothing wrong with us.

How does this help?
Renaming Homophobia would be a huge step in exposing anti-gay rights activists as the bigots they really are, it takes away they're pretty little PR sheild, and exposes them among the population.
It's a major step for true equality and understanding.

<SIDERANT>

GAY is NOT a synonym for STUPID
Stop using is that way, find another word.

</SIDERANT>

In conclusion; I give you this article, which goes into the cause of bigotry itself, and debunks a huge number of misconceptions.
http://www.bidstrup.com/marriage.htm

I think, in my haste to make this, I have completely forgotten to make a discussion...
simple yes or no questions really, do you agree?

NOTE:
this was written for a different site, and just copy and pasted here, so thats why the weirdness.