Love wins

Karim meets a nice man on a dating app. He arranges to meet up for a chat. He puts on his best outfit, walks down the block - and finds police waiting to arrest him.

This is an experience that all too many LGBTQ+ people in EgyptA country linking northeast Africa with the Middle East. have endured. A new report by the BBC has found that Egyptian police have been pursuing gay people on dating apps.

The report is a harrowing reminder of the hatred LGBTQ+ still face around the world. Egypt is far from an outlier. A new report from the Centre for American ProgressA liberal research and campaigning group based in the USA. has found that discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is on the rise in the USA.  

And some transgender people have reported that they are leaving the UK because transphobia is rife.¹

It has many wondering if there is really any hope that things will get better. They say it is a sad fact that humanity is often hateful towards those who are different.

They argue that whenever human beings come across a group of people who are not like them, they instinctively try to oppress them.

But others think this is a cop-out. They say hate is a modern invention.

Many societies were historically very accepting of LGBTQ+ people. Gay men once lived openly among the peoples of the Americas. However, after 1492 European conquerors tried to stamp these practices out.

The same pattern occurred in East Asia. In China and Japan it was considered normal to have relationships with both men and women.² It was only in the 19th Century, under European influence, that homophobia developed.

Before the rise of the Abrahamic religionsJudaism, Christianity and Islam are known as the Abrahamic religions because they all trace their roots back to the story of Abraham., European societies too were tolerant of certain same-sex relationships.

That is why some think bigotryPrejudice towards a certain group, and an unwillingness to change your mind. is nothing but an accident of history - and it can be consigned to the dustbin.

Yes: Humanity is not naturally hostile towards LGBTQ+ people. In fact, for most of human history they have been accepted and respected. We just need to unlearn our discriminatory attitudes.

No: Human beings instinctively define themselves against "others". It is a sad fact of our nature that societies often develop a sense of themselves by discriminating against those who are different.

Or... Of course, we do not instinctively hate LGBTQ+ people, or any other group. But homophobia has become deeply ingrained, and it will be no easy task to change people's attitudes.