Pride and Homophobia
Making strides but still in danger
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for this week’s song from 1994, Homophobia, by Chumbawamba.
If you’d like to hear the song before you read the background, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics. I’ve written the lyrics in italics. As with most everything, there are many ways to interpret things. I invite you to leave a question or comment at the end.
For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
The song
(529 words)
Homophobia is a 1994 song by the British group Chumbawamba. They were together for 30 years before breaking up in 2012. This anarchist punk band wrote many songs about social issues and gave the money they made from selling CD to a variety of anti-corporate charities. They even encouraged their fans to steal their CDs, but only from corporate record stores.
The story of the song is about the problem of violence toward gay people. It begins with a scene of the murder of a young gay man.
Up behind the bus-stop in the toilets off the street
There are traces of a killing on the floor beneath your feet
Mixed up with the piss and beer are bloodstains on the floor
From the boy who got his head kicked in a night or two before
The singers say that homophobia, which is a term that describes people with extreme reactions to lesbians and gay men, is the worst disease. The word “phobia” means fear. The American Psychological Association defines homophobia as:
The song continues, listing the places and situations that encourage homophobic behavior:
In the pubs, clubs and burger bars breeding pens for pigs
Alcohol, testosterone and ignorance and fists
Packs of hunting animals roam across the town
They find an easy victim and they punch him to the ground
In other words, groups of men who start out drinking together but who do not really understand (but fear) homosexuals, go out looking for an easy target and begin hitting him.
The siren of the ambulance, the deadpan of the cops
Chalk to mark the outline where the boy first dropped
Here, the songwriters describe the first scene and how the police do not show any reaction to the murder of the young man.
Beware the holy trinity - church and state and law
The singers give a warning: be careful. They are saying that there is a connection between the church, which has condemned homosexuality throughout history, the state (the government), and the law, which all work together to promote this kind of violence.
For every death the virus gets more deadly than before
The “virus”, or homophobia, becomes more dangerous as time goes by.
This song was written in 1994. Thousands of gays, lesbians and transgender people have been the victims of violence since then. However, there has also been progress in many countries toward protecting the rights of members of the LGBT community.
There are 34 countries that have passed laws allowing same-sex couples to get married:
Andorra (2023), Argentina (2010), Australia (2017), Austria (2019), Belgium (2003), Brazil (2013), Canada (2005), Chile (2022), Colombia (2016), Costa Rica (2020), Cuba (2022), Denmark (2012), Ecuador (2019), Finland (2015), France (2013), Germany (2017), Greenland (2015), Iceland (2010), Ireland (2015), Luxembourg (2014), Malta (2017), Mexico (2022), The Netherlands (2000), New Zealand (2013), Norway (2008), Portugal (2010), Slovenia (2022), South Africa (2006), Spain (2005), Sweden (2009), Taiwan (2019), United Kingdom (England & Wales (2014), Scotland (2014), Northern Ireland (2020)), United States (2015), Uruguay (2013)
Homosexuality is criminalized in the following countries (as of 2011):
Africa: 37 countries
Asia: 22
Europe: 2
Middle East/North Arica: 15
The Americas and the Caribbean: 11
VOCABULARY
Anarchist アナーキスト
anti-corporate 反企業的な
piss 小便
reaction 反応
breeding pens 飼育小屋
ignorance 無知
fists 拳
pack 群れ
easy victim 簡単な獲物
deadpan 無表情
outline 輪郭
promote 促進
criminalized 犯罪化する
Sources
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/gay-marriage-around-the-world/
http://www.globalequality.org/component/content/article/166