The No Homo phrase has been around for a long time. It’s even in Wikipedia.
Two guys, usually adolescents, but not always, sitting close to each other, feel they need to clear up any confusion about their sexuality and the nature of their relationship. One will say to the other, No Homo. Often their seat mate replies, “No Homo.” Then they settle into some male bonding without the risk being called out as gay lovers.
I love comedy, and I admit sometimes the circumstances that young men employ the No Homo phrase can be hilarious. Still I think that with the atmosphere that exists in the world–that many people still think, say, and legislate that it is wrong to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer, and believe it is far superior to be gender normative and heterosexual, there are queer people who are affected deeper than we realize by these little jokes.
No one wants friends, family, and random gay dudes with fetching hats to suffer any more than they already are in a world that can be intentionally ugly.
My good friend, Shirley McMillan, who is an amazing young adult fiction author from Northern Ireland, and who started the nation’s first Gender and Sexuality Alliance in any high school in the country, tells me that this term is making the rounds in her village school. She asked if I would create a YouTube video with some reflections on this phrase.
So here is my weekly YouTube video!
No Homo?!?
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