LCP workshops
hit homophobia
by Dot & Lauren
Suzanne Pham head of the National Les
bian Task Force & Caucus of the Coalition
Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, facili
tated two workshops on “Internalized
Homophobia" sponsored by the Lesbian
Community Project in May. Suzanne has pre
sented homophobia workshops to various
audiences across the country and is an active
participant in the women’s movement and
the lesbian movement
Suzanne designed the series of workshops
to be about “setting ourselves free, about
loving ourselves and each other, about
personal growth and political organizing."
The major block to these freedoms, and
hence the need for the workshops, is hom o
phobia — both external and internal. Accord
ing to Suzanne, “It makes us choose invisibil
ity — closeting — which then makes us un
able to know all of us, our numbers; unable to
work together in our own behalf for our own
rights; and unable to get the support of non
lesbians because they don’t know we are les
bians. Homophobia can lead to our hurting
ourselves and hurting others." The need to
confront homophobia is great and must be
done in order to survive personally and col
lectively; We must break free of the restraints
and damage of homophobia. We must free
ourselves to organize for survival."
To start us thinking on the effects of
homophobia, Suzanne began the two ses
sions by asking us to imagine a world free of
homophobia. What would be different? and
why? Th e answers ranged from unlimited
freedom in dress (no more "dress for suc
cess”) to complete openness in choice of
lifestyles (without fear of loss or pain) to
further acceptance and support of art and
artists (creativity in general). Each point was
questioned and explained and debated.
Suzanne took the visions one step further
when she asked us to imagnie a world with
out gender roles. The primary answer was
that there would be no homophobia; there
fore, "to work against homophobia is to work
against violence against all women" and to
work for an end to our oppression.
Th e major difficulty in eliminating homo
phobia is that most of us are victims of in
ternalized homophobia. The majority agreed
that the dividing line between the external
and the internal is often blurred and not easily
separated. There are some justified fears
We've got what
women are
looking for . . .
about the uses of homophobia against us,
such as loss of families, jobs, homes, children
and even lives. Suzanne believes that “the
separating line comes when we individually
and collectively come to believe that others
are justified in their prejudices, when we be
lieve there is something wrong with us, when
we feel we do not deserve equality and free
dom , when we take in the world's view and
suffer from low self-esteem and self-hatred."
Som e barriers to dealing with our own
homophobia are the manifestations of inter
nalized homophobia. These can include
drug and food and alcohol addiction, depres
sion, destructive relationships, self-blame,
closeting and passing. Difficult as it may
sometimes seem, we must confront and
eliminate our own homophobia in order to
be free and to work for our rights.
“What we must remember," Suzanne em
phasized, “is that despite living in a homo-
phobic world, we gay and lesbian people keep
on being, keep on going. We are all miracles
of survival and should be proud of it— Many
of us suffer from (internalized homophobia)
in some degree. Those who have the least are
those who have worked hard to remove it
from their lives. To remove it, one must first
develop a consciousness of it."
We have work to do — but we have sur
vived this far. Most of us left these sessions
with our thoughts already working on strate
gies to meet our goals.
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AUG. 29 - SEPT. 1 , 1986
<D
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T c 3
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Ç
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Ju st O ut 'ulv 1986
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