The roots of homophobia are fear. Fear and more fear.

George Weinberg, a psychologist and early gay-rights advocate, is closely associated with framing “homophobia” as a psychological and social phenomenon rather than a moral failing of gay people. The line is commonly attributed to him in the context of his efforts in the late 1960s–early 1970s to name and analyze anti-gay prejudice, especially as psychiatry and the broader culture were debating homosexuality’s status and meaning. In that milieu, Weinberg argued that hostility toward gay people often reflects anxieties in the observer—about sexuality, gender norms, and social order—rather than anything inherent in homosexuality itself.

The quote reduces homophobia to an emotional engine: fear. By repeating the word, Weinberg emphasizes that anti-gay hostility is not primarily rational disagreement but a defensive reaction—fear of difference, fear of one’s own desires, fear of social stigma, or fear that established gender and family norms might be destabilized. The formulation also shifts moral and psychological scrutiny away from gay people and onto the prejudiced response itself, implying that combating homophobia requires addressing the underlying anxieties that fuel it. It anticipates later accounts of prejudice as projection and threat-management rather than principled conviction.