Would homophobia still be an issue in a post-apocalyptic environment?

Contrary to what we hope would happen, in most cases disasters and hardship make people less tolerant not more. Life and resources become scarce and people will find ways to justify depriving some and giving to others. If a prejudice existed before the disaster it will most definitely exist after.

 

If I may, I've always seen the point of post-apocalypticism as being that there isn't "aNew Member Quick Start

 

How could this just happen in Northern Ireland, without effecting the rest of the island though? In reality, it is an imaginary border that is crossed countless times every day.

Ultimately, it's a post-apocalyptic world and unless somebody has been in such an environment, they do not know how it will pan out. If you want homophobia to continue to be prevalent in this world (for the sake of your story, obviously), then go for it. If you want to envision a setting devoid of such an issue, then go for that approach instead. It's your world, and if you present it well nobody will have reason to doubt its realism.

Interestingly, many are saying that hardline religion would rise. If everything in your life came crashing down, would you start believing in a benevolent, loving God? People turn against their God over much less (comparatively), such as losing the use of their legs. In my opinion, the only people who would believe a zombie apocalypse was the rapture would be the people who were extremely religious prior to such an event.

In Cell by Stephen King, he mildly addresses this. On the main character's journey, he meets a bible nut preaching about the rapture. This is the only reference to the rapture in the book, and the others in the MC's group chastise her.

 

The UN quarantine the entire country, setting up a large blockade on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. This is of course after the UN voted for a containment policy.

 

and then initiated full eradication of all infected outside the zone

 

Obviously, it's become a question of, would they be accepting or even more intolerant? I think it mostly depends on the time frame

If the incident just happened, as in your book starts normally and then the bad thing happens, I think everyone would be VERY tolerant. I remember after 9/11, everyone (at least where I lived) was extremely nice to each other. Because a horrible thing had just happened, but "we" (not me in particular, but people in general) survived. We will stand united and make it through this together. We will support each other and help each other through this.

But if it's been a while, people tend to get a little crazy. Take Stephen King's Under the Dome, for instance. They started off okay. But the longer time went on, the more people became... kind of crazy. Lines were drawn. There were people who tried to stick to the rules, but there were other people that thought, "There's no hope. We're stuck here. We're never getting out. So what good are the rules anymore?"

I think you'll have both kinds of people in a post apocalyptic world. People who are kind and think, "We're all in the same boat. Who cares if they're different than me or not?" But then there will be the people that lose all hope, and just want to be mean.

Just my two cents.

 

Pretty much.

 

During college I took part in an apocalyptic challenge, where we were given a set of characters and had to decide who would survive based on their character summary...
As a group we debated several times about the survival of a gay man, who's name I don't remember, but let's call him Rob.

I was rooting for Rob, because I'm gay too, and if there's ever a zombie apocalypse, I plan on surviving!
Anyway, the opposing side of the group made the argument that for mankind to go on living, there needs to be a heterosexual majority, so that we can go forth and procreate... and my argument was that gay men can produce children just as well as heterosexual men.

Maybe you could use something from that debate to help? I'd recommend discussing/debating it with someone. It's interesting to see what people's views are on it.

 

@Sketchy Nelson Historically, the fact that women are the ones who have children meant that they started out being protected while men started out being expendable, but when (a few of) the men would come back from life threatening hazards, the "combat is bad, men aren't good enough for us to protect, but women are" mindset eventually evolved into "combat is good, women aren't good enough to protect us, but men are."

Maybe some groups would end up splitting gays/asexuals (like the two of us) versus straights/bisexuals (like 90% of everybody else) the same way?

 

Yeah, that's a possibility. Maybe I over thought it a little too - maybe the question was "Would anyone care about homosexuality in a post-apocalyptic world?" rather than "Would homophobia be a big enough issue in a post-apocalyptic world to cause drama?" - if that makes any sense?

 

I think that even if homophobia wasn't a thing in that environment, people would still care about homosexuality. But in a good way I suppose. People looking for partners of the same sex.

The two characters in my story who are in the homosexual relationship are together from the start of the story, but don't get into a relationship until later on after some encouragement from another character. It only "raises eyebrows" with the antagonist cult the main characters have to deal with and one side character. Everyone else is either glad or they don't really care.

The character who gives them that extra push to confess their feelings is a pretty nice guy.

 

Including being nice to muslims?

 

Heh, I'm a bit surprised at their argument. Lesbians too can and want to have babies, so if things were that bad, I'm sure everyone would be happy to ensure the survival of human race. So I don't know, they might as well have 50-50.

Although, I guess they should count me out, a heterosexual woman, who has zero interest in procreation and to whom the mere thought of getting bloated with a baby in my tummy let alone pushing that thing out gives the mega creeps. I wouldn't really even mind if the human race got extinguished anyway.

As for the topic, if there's no Holy Scripture that forbade homosexuality, I'd see there'd be less "justification" for homophobia. I'm not sure what other argument to use against homosexuality. It's not inherently unnatural or harmful, so at least it's possible there'd be far less of that. I'm just not sure if the human race can get by without sooner or later choosing a leader or leaders who decide to trample on minorities for one idiotic reason or another.

And this post came out more nihilistic than I expected.

 

@Some_Bloke - I think you're right. People care about differences in other people no matter the situation/environment.

@KaTrian - It was a surprising argument, and great point about women that have zero interest in procreation. I wish someone had brought that up in the debate.

 

My ex-wife is a lesbian. We have two kids. So, yeah, that's not a particularly good argument.