Heterocentric is the same as Homophobic
I work at an actuarial consulting firm of about 40 people. My boss is a lesbian, one senior consultant is gay, making just a little under 10% of our practice as gay. Before last year, when it came time to hire new associates, at least half of the practice did, and if anyone did not fit in, i.e. they were homophobes, they were nixed.
The paradigm changed, however, with the marketplace. Now, the people who get hired are those who are from competing consulting firms over every other factor. We hired this new guy, who, is not technically homophobic (I have never heard him say anything disparaging), but is loud, and brags constantly about his wife, new baby, and sports. Being a gay man, I could care less about team sports since they are a bastian for the straight world and testosterone. I term him "heterocentric" for he is constantly reinforcing his manhood and lifestyle as the norm and wants everyone else to act the same as him.
I make the argument that being an ignorant heterocentric is the same as being homophobic. His presence and his comments make me feel the same as if he was slogging homophobic slurs in my direction. It's the ignorance of the whole thing - as gay people, we grow up in the heterocentric world and have to cope in both it and our own gay world and deal with the conflicts between the two. How nice it would be if we could live in a homocentric world and brag about it incessantly and loudly to coworkers and not get fired, teased, or harrassed.
The paradigm changed, however, with the marketplace. Now, the people who get hired are those who are from competing consulting firms over every other factor. We hired this new guy, who, is not technically homophobic (I have never heard him say anything disparaging), but is loud, and brags constantly about his wife, new baby, and sports. Being a gay man, I could care less about team sports since they are a bastian for the straight world and testosterone. I term him "heterocentric" for he is constantly reinforcing his manhood and lifestyle as the norm and wants everyone else to act the same as him.
I make the argument that being an ignorant heterocentric is the same as being homophobic. His presence and his comments make me feel the same as if he was slogging homophobic slurs in my direction. It's the ignorance of the whole thing - as gay people, we grow up in the heterocentric world and have to cope in both it and our own gay world and deal with the conflicts between the two. How nice it would be if we could live in a homocentric world and brag about it incessantly and loudly to coworkers and not get fired, teased, or harrassed.