Origin of "homophobia"

[Joanne M. Despres]

FYI, the backing for our date comes from a TIME article quoted in the
OED Additions Series, volume 2.  I'd heard the story about Dr. George
Weinberg's invention of the word too (in fact, Dr. Weinberg is quoted
in a 1971 source under the same homophobia entry in the Additions
Series), so I wrote him last year to verify the account and to ask for details.  Dr. Weinberg
wrote back as follows:  "I certainly did coin the word 'homophobia',
after finding it almost impossible to get my fellow psychotherapists
to consider giving humane treatment to homosexuals.  I remember the
day, but alas not the exact date.  I first began using the word in
speeches in 1965, one at the Barbizon hotel in New York City."
Unfortunately, Dr. Weinberg did not have any transcripts of those
speeches available, but he referred me to a Dr. Gregory Herek, a researcher
and writer on homophobia based at UC-Davis, for help in finding an earlier citation.
Dr. Herek's earliest evidence for the word came from another 1969
article published in a gay men's pornographic magazine.  I
don't recall the name of the publication offhand, but the article
was, I believe, titled "He-Man Horseshit" and was co-authored by
Jack Nichols and another writer with the surname Clark.

Joanne Despres