You've missed the point I was trying to make.
I'm pretty sure I got your point...we only need to flesh out the details between mine and yours apparently.
When I say "doesn't like homosexuality" I don't mean that the person dislikes homosexual acts. Of course a heterosexual won't like those in the sense of not wanting to indulge in them.
Uh huh...So if a heterosexual says they don't like homosexual acts though they've said nothing about any individual person are they still not labeled as homophobic? It certainly seems they are.
I mean he would dislike homosexuality as whole thing, a whole idea, and probably feels the world would be a better place without it.
Yet being labeled homophobic, which can be demonstrably proven -even from this very thread- does not distinguish between dislike of homosexual acts and hatred for the person. The word is derogatorily applied to anyone who dissents against homosexual acts period.
Its been applied to me and I don't wish homosexuals harm. Nor do I fear them in any reasonable sense of that word any more than I fear someone who likes to have sex with other species of animals.
Whether or not the world would have been a better place without the reality of homosexuality can be debated and should be if its an issue that may help people progress towards a more peaceful and understanding society.
A heterosexual that finds homosexual sex somewhat, er, icky but is perfectly happy to allow homosexuals to act out their own sexuality is not homophobic. Someone who hates or fears homosexual people on the basic of their sexuality very much is.
"er, icky" is in my view a pretty shallow assessment. Especially if the dislike extends into the instinctual.
Never the less, as I've said your distinction of how the term should be applied is not true to how the term HAS been applied. Which is what my post has said.
Someone who disapproves of a Jewish person's actions is not antisemitic. Someone who hates Jews simply because they are Jews, is.
And in case I haven't made myself clear...reread what I said above. Just observing all the protests happening as we speak we can see that many many people are confusing that difference. I think that's because its easier to stereotype and hate those that disagree with ourselves than it is to think through an issue reasonably even if it means our opinions must change.
Look...you've tried to realign the term in a more favorable light but that attempt is just not realistic. And part of the reason why you yourself stated.
Homosexuals, demonstrably, have taught society to equate their particular preference for how and who they prefer to have sex with with their humanity to the point that in your own words...
"If I say to (gay) John "I don't like homosexuality" he probably will, because you are criticizing something that is an essential part of him. "
One might from this conclude that its just as likely that my heterosexuality is an essential part of me as well.
Ergo if homosexuals don't like to have sex like heterosexuals do then they are criticizing that essential part of me.
Except you might argue that simply because they criticize heterosexual sex doesn't mean they are criticizing heterosexual people. Yet you've argued that they are.
So if who and how we prefer to have sex with is an essential part of ourselves but someone criticizes the practice then how can we distinguish between those that hate the practice from those that hate the practitioner because of the practice? Especially when the practitioner ensures that everyone knows that they equate the two things to the point that the practice has become the primary essence of the practitioner?
We are back to...everyone who shows disdain for homosexual practices necessarily shows disdain for those that practice homosexuality which means every dissenter of homosexual practices is homophobic and every homosexual is a heterophobe because of that reasoning. Hence my reasoning that the label has become little more than a political ploy to silence one opinion in an attempt to make another superior. In order to call a heterosexual a homophobe one has to diminish the homosexual to little more than the act of practicing homosexual sex, which, ironically, probably only reinforces what those that use that label are trying to diminish in others.