Author, Psychotherapist Who Coined the Term 'Homophobia' Dies at 86

The psychotherapist who created the word that defines the prejudice that gays and lesbians experience died Monday. He was 86.

The New York Times reports George Weinberg, the psychotherapist who, over 50 years ago, coined the term "homophobia," died of cancer in Manhattan.

"I coined the word homophobia to mean it was a phobia about homosexuals," Dr. Weinberg told Gregory M. Herek, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, in 1998. "It was a fear of homosexuals which seemed to be associated with a fear of contagion, a fear of reducing the things one fought for - home and family. It was a religious fear, and it had led to great brutality, as fear always does."

The Times reports Weinberg recalled an incident involving colleagues in 1965 who asked him to disinvite a lesbian he planned to take to a party. He sensed fear more than dislike.

Wikipedia notes that the first time the word "homophobia" appeared in print was in a 1969 issue of Screw magazine. It was legitimized a few months later when Time magazine incorporated the word.

Weinberg's 1972 book "Society and the Healthy Homosexual" analyzed prejudice against gays and lesbians. In it, he suggested that those who harbor prejudice against homosexuals, and not homosexuals themselves, are suffering from a psychological malady, an irrational state of mind.