George Weinberg, the Manhattan
psychotherapist who coined the term homophobia in the 60s, is unhappy
about the AP's ban on the word.
Next year's print edition of the AP's
influential style book will recommend against the use of “phobia”
in “political and social contexts,” including terms like
“homophobia” and "Islamophobia.”
Homophobia is “ascribing a mental
disability to someone, and suggests a knowledge that we don't have,”
AP Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn told POLITICO.
“It seems inaccurate. Instead, we would use something more
neutral: anti-gay, or some such, if we had reason to believe that was
the case.”
Speaking on NPR's On
The Media, Weinberg, the author of Society and the Healthy
Homosexual, defended use of the word, saying that homophobia is a
real mental disorder.
“People should be treated for it,”
he said, “but nobody goes to a therapist and says, 'Please treat me
for my irrational hatred of homosexuals.”
Weinberg noted that there are
appropriate times for using “homophobia.”
“If you're anti-gay, you can be
talked to. If you're homophobic, you can't.”
“Not all rage, not all hatred is
phobic. But we have no word coming even close. And part of my
objection to banning this word is, what other word do you got?” he
added.