Tory MEP Claims homophobia is propaganda and does not exist

[marshlander]

... while homophobia is surely an irrational fear, in my opinion it is more productive to treat it as a social problem than a medical problem ...

I think this difference was behind the justification for some of Mr Helmer's ideas, but he has rather failed to bear in mind how dynamic the English language is. The use of the term -phobia, has come to have a colloquial rather than a medical meaning - driven by the kind of journalism that suffixes every political scandal with the word -gate. In this case it strikes me not as a fear, but rather the kind of response that makes some people stamp on spiders. These people don't really fear spiders, they just stamp on them. Again I would say this is why "traditional" views such as these need to be challenged. Spiders, as well as the rest of us, have a contribution to make.