Don't Get Me Started on Homophobia!

The use of "homophobia" to describe anti-LGBT sentiment has long been a sore point for me. I have long complained that it is not a real word and if it is, it has nothing to do with LGBT hatred. What does this non-word mean? Let's break it down to its two parts, homo and phobia. Phobia is easy, a phobia is a fear of something. Homo is slightly more challenging. In English we use the prefix homo from two sources. From Latin we use the root "homo" which means human or man, giving us names such as "Homo sapiens". We also use the Greek form "homos", meaning "same". From this we derive words such as "homogenize", meaning to make the same. Perhaps of more interest to readers of this journal entry, it is the root for "homosexual" or, "same sex". So the "homo" in homosexual means, "same". Homo = same, phobia = fear, so fear of sameness. No wonder as an artist I claimed I was homophobic and could not be as good an artist if I weren't. Now that I no longer work as a serious artist, I simply state I am transgender and proudly homophobic. So what word should we be using to describe this condition? Whilst it is not perfect, I generally use heterosexist although when dealing with such individuals I have found "arsehole" works quite nicely. Oh, and let's be realistic here, did you seriously think you were drinking gay milk?