Dallas Bragg and Paulo discuss internalized homophobia, the negative attitudes LGBTQ+ people absorb from society and turn inward. A guest named Mel suggested reframing it as "homonegativity" to better capture the self-directed negative narrative at play.
Internalized homophobia refers to when LGBTQ+ people absorb and turn against themselves the negative attitudes, beliefs, stereotypes, and prejudices about LGBTQ+ people that exist in our heteronormative society. This can manifest in various ways we can go through. What do you think about that definition, Paulo?
I think it's great, but it's funny because I was talking to Mel, who was on one of your previous podcasts, who I work very closely with, and they brought up this topic to me, and it just had me— I went home and I could not fall asleep because I was thinking about it. Because when she— when they said it, I was like, whoa. And Mel had brought up looking at it as homonegativity instead of homophobia, because it basically is talking about a narrative that you're telling yourself. And phobia is fear, whereas negativity is like this negative narrative.
