Melancholy Wrote:"unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality."
Dictionary.
Antipathy in dictionary:
. a natural, basic, or habitual repugnance; aversion. 2. an instinctive contrariety or opposition in feeling. 3. an object of natural aversion or habitual dislike.
[color="#cc8899"]That being the most correct usage, with 2 and 3 being stretches. A phobia is in and of itself an irrational fear. Aversion and habitual dislike are symptoms of the fear therein, and are associated with it.
@ above, people manage to be afraid of cotton balls. A phobia doesn't have a cause (I'm afraid of falling off the high place onto the ground) so much as it just...exists, hence the irrational aspect (I'm afraid of cotton balls even knowing that they have no way of harming me. I don't know why I am, but I can't even look at one without crying). People that despise gays for biblical reasons or because they view gay sex as disgusting aren't homophobes because they aren't afraid and have a reason, albeit a crappy one.
-Note-
Remind me to e-mail Dr. Drew Pinsky and see if he responds O.o[/COLOR]