Definition

At the root of the opposition to gay and lesbian rights is heterosexism. The first order of business is to understand what heterosexism is.  As Joseph H. Neisen, has stated:

Heterosexism is the continued promotion by the major institutions of society of a heterosexual lifestyle while simultaneously subordinating any other lifestyles. (i.e. gay/lesbian/bisexual). Heterosexism is based on unfounded prejudices. When our institutions knowingly or unknowingly perpetuate these prejudices and intentionally or unintentionally act on them, heterosexism is at work.¹

Heterosexism asserts that heterosexuality, along with society’s chosen set of rules surrounding gender, is normal, superior, and the only acceptable expression of sexuality. It sustains itself through the the two-stage process of promotion by society’s major institutions, and reception from the public. Deviations from the norm prescribed by heterosexism is more than often perceived as a threat to society as a whole, and it is this justification that differences equate danger that has lead to the prosecution of those that fall outside what heterosexism considers to be normal.

Institutional Heterosexism

As described above, institutions play a key part in the creation and sustaining of heterosexism. Notable examples include the church with its notions and teachings of morality and sin, the medical models of deviance, abnormality and perversion, and the State’s regulation of sexuality and non-conforming behaviour.² For centuries both the church and by close association, the state, branded homosexuality as sinful as criminal. These institutions sought to punish those who practiced so-called ‘immoral’ sexual acts due to the supposed danger immorality posed to society.³

Gender

Sexism is a central characteristic to the structure of heterosexist societies and defines the way in which heterosexism historically oppressed homosexuality. As Warner points out, “all human societies have divided labour between the sexes. In modern industrial societies, men earned the family income in the labour market while women tended to the household and raised children.”⁴ Heterosexism sets expectations that men and women will perform the types of work deemed “normal” for their corresponding gender. This consequently devalues women’s labour as their work is reduced to the domestic sphere, while men work for wages in the public sphere. By limiting the types of labour each gender is allowed to perform, society is shaped in a particular way.

The Nuclear Family

The strict gender confines of heterosexism create what is known as the Nuclear Family. This type of family is comprised of a heterosexual wife and husband, and children. In his writing Warner draws attention to “the traditional or nuclear family as a key agent of social control, embodying sexism that oppresses.”⁵ Marriage can be seen as a sort of contract, where upon being pared, the man and woman proceed to act out the roles their respective genders have been assigned. This pairing is inherently oppressive because, as Warner points out, “it is not based on equal pairing [due to the different roles each gender plays, and the value placed by society on each gender’s labour.”⁶

Implications

The issue with the nuclear family is that it is utterly incompatible with homosexuality, and this incompatibility can be seen as a major source of oppression. Sexual activity in the heterosexist system is relegated to procreation, the only appropriate place for this procreation being between a married couple. Consequently, “sexual preference or activities incompatible with procreative sex within marriage are characterized as dirty, disgusting, or immoral. For that reason, gays and lesbians are characterized as perverted, deviant, and repugnant.”⁷ The very structure of heterosexist society created by heterosexist gender roles means that gays and lesbians have no place in society. Because they do not further the goal to create nuclear families, homosexuality becomes recast as a threat to society, which welcomes the oppression of gays and lesbians.

Conclusion

Heterosexism creates a regimented social order that serve the interests of the major institutions of society: the churches, state institutions, conservative organizations and movements, the medical establishments, the social sciences, the media, the entertainment industries, the educational system, and corporate elites.⁸ As these institutions benefit from the social structure reinforced by heterosexism, those that deviate from the so-called norm face discrimination and marginalization.  As Warner writes, heterosexism “demands and ruthlessly enforces compulsory heterosexuality.”⁹ Needless to say, heterosexism and homosexuality are by nature, incompatible with one another, and it is this incompatibility that has resulted in both the past persecution of homosexuals, and the gay and lesbian liberation movements of the 1970’s .

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Footnotes

¹ Joseph H. Neisen, ‘Heterosexism: Redefining Homophobia for the 1990s,’ Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy 1(3), (1990), 25.

² Warner, Tom. Never Going Back: A History of Queer Activism in Canada. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 8.

³ Ibid, 17.

⁴ Ibid, 11.

⁵ Ibid, 8.

⁶ Ibid, 11.

⁷ Ibid, 13.

⁸ Ibid, 9.

⁹ Ibid, 13.