This is (surprise) in response to the truly psychotic debate/name-calling match that is sweeping the SDMB.
Before the SDMB, I had no contact with gay people. (Or so I thought.) Once on the SDMB, I quickly found the Ask the Gay Guy thread. The overall impression I came away with was that gay people were attracted to people of their gender. Full stop, endl;, They lived happily ever after, etc. Now, I had barely any preconcieved notions of what gay people were like before accessing this thread.
Now, I would like to believe that any idiot coming on to the SDMB would be smart enough to realize that, for the most part, people are people. But, we get such a large percentage of idiots whom are so sure that their target group is collectively evil, immoral, stupid, and lacking in fiber. So, is knee-jerk bigotry hard-wired for most people, or are bigots capable of saying, “Hey, these people aren’t what I’ve been saying” after meeting them?
Some are, some aren’t. But as more of the second type die off, they won’t be replaced.
What do you mean by “cured”?
If there are so many train wrecks, how come you never see train junkyards?
UPDATE: I saw a train junkyard this weekend in Roseville, CA!
From first-hand evidence, yes. Homophobia is based, for the most part, on a misunderstanding of what gay people are like. Most homophobes have a misapprehension based on media stereotypes, or on limited negative experiences with the most obnoxious, and thus most visible, gay people.
Given the opportunity to get to know more gay people, who don’t conform to those expectations, most people will learn the simple fact that gay people, like straight people, are just people. Some are good, some are bad, some are promiscuous, some are monogamous, some are right-handed, some are left-handed… Once these stereotypes are dispelled, people are free to judge gay people as individuals, rather than as a class, and there you go. Prejudice dispelled.
I have a very dear friend who I worked with five years ago, who considered himself to be homophobic. Gradually, while working together, he found out I was gay. He re-examined his image of what gay people were like, and figured out that his entire stance toward homosexuals was based on a guy in high school who kept hitting on him, obnoxiously, in public. He’d just assumed all gay people were that way.
We talked about it a lot, and learned a lot from each other. And have been friends ever since. He’s a great guy.
This is one of many similar stories I can share in this vein. All of them revolve around the simple fact that gay people are not all alike, and judging them as if they were is unfair. People can, given the opportunity, learn and change.
I’d like to check in as a person who has had to abandon the firmly-held position of Biblical literalist(and all that is implied) in favour of reason as a direct result of that position being challenged (chiefly in debate/discussion on this very board).
So yes, it can happen at least once.