Alex's Answer

Hi there and welcome to Ask Alex, 

You have asked us why is gay bad. We will try to answer your question the best we can! 

Firstly, GAY is not bad. Being gay is to feel sexually attracted to people of the same sex, no more, no less. Now, there are people who still believe this is wrong, and would give the word gay a negative meaning or would be mean to people who are gay. When this happens, we talk about homophobia. 

The homophobia definition is the fear, hatred, discomfort with, or mistrust of people who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Homophobia can take many different forms, including negative attitudes and beliefs about, aversion to, or prejudice against bisexual, lesbian, and gay people. It’s often based in irrational fear and misunderstanding. Some people’s homophobias may be rooted in conservative religious beliefs. People may hold homophobic beliefs if they were taught them by parents and families or communities. 

Homophobic people may use mean language and name-calling when they talk about lesbian and gay people. Biphobic people may tell bisexual people that it’s “just for attention,” or that they’re inherently cheaters. In its most extreme forms, homophobia and biphobia can cause people to bully, abuse, and inflict violence on lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. 

Some LGBTQ people experience discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. This may be discrimination from religious institutions, companies, or from their government. Examples include same-sex couples not being allowed to marry, getting legally fired just for being LGBTQ, or not being allowed into certain housing. LGBTQ people and their allies have fought for equal rights and continue to do so, especially concerning marriage, employment, housing and health care equality, and protection from hate crimes (violence against LGBTQ people because of who they are). 

We don’t know if you are suffering the effects of homophobia in your life, but if you are, there are some organizations in Ireland who dedicate all their efforts to support young people in this matter. These are some of them: 

• Belong To www.belongto.org/ 
• Goshh goshh.ie/ 
• LGBT Ireland lgbt.ie/  

If you would like to talk to someone about this further, you can call our Childline team at 1800 66 66 66 or use the live chat on our website www.childline.ie (click the orange LiveChat tab on the right-hand side of the screen). We will listen and support you 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. We do not judge you and our services are free of charge and confidential.

We hope this has helped! 

We would love to chat with you soon, take care, 

Alex