A
homophobe isn't just a
person who has an
irrational fear of homosexuals. The word itself would connotate that, but homophobics are usually not
scared, but are also carrying a big fat, sack of
hate towards the group.
Way back in the day, psycho-psychia... people who fuck with other people's brains thought homosexuality was a disorder of sorts. There was a term for it, which was just another word jammed in front of homophobia, the certain letters in which I can't seem to remember how to place together right now, but a word for it was there none the less. This was a major starter down the road to homosexuals being homophobic themselves, scared of what their sexuality was, and loathing themselves for it, thinking something was wrong with them. What's worse is that stuff like this set the ground for other people to be homophobic. When you get a closed minded person with an idea in their head, you're only apt to see trouble ahead of you.
Anyway, eventually, with the advent of homosexuality being an 'accepted' (it's sad, but really, we still live in a sexual orientation biased, heterosexist society, so women and gay people and... basically every minority still has worse chances down on paper than other people... other people meaning pasty faced anglo saxon males}, we get the idea that it's okay. It is okay, homosexual is out of the psychoanalyst's cookbook, and homophobic is in. Here we are, poised to fix our society, to blend it right, and here we are, with people who're ready to fuck it up, because they're too stupid to understand what they're hurting by who they're hating.