I've never been crazy about calling it a phobia. With a few exceptions, I don't think that most of the people who are hateful and discriminatory towards LGB people are actually afraid of them. The exception of course would be that whole saying (I'm sure you've all seen it before) that some straight men fear gay men because they're afraid that the gay men will treat them the way they treat women. The saying is directed at men, I think in general people tend to fear men more than women, but I'm sure it applies to women as well. For the most part though, I don't think it is a phobia, I think it's just hatred, plain and simple. However, phobia is the common understood term for this type of behavior, so while I don't think it's ideal, I will use it when needed to convey meaning.

For the longest time though, I never believed biphobia existed. I thought, people don't have a problem with the "straight side" of me, they just have a problem with the "gay side" (note: I know a lot of people have a problem with the whole "bi people are half gay, half straight" thing, I'm not endorsing that kind of language, just describing it in the way that most non-LGB people seem to think of us). Because I thought people only have a problem with the part that is same-sex attracted, I always thought it was regular old homophobia, not biphobia.

It wasn't till I got older and became more accepting of my orientation and started participating in LGB spaces that I actually experienced what people refer to as biphobia: the implication that we're promiscuous, form our relationships based on sex not personality/compatibility, that we're cheaters, et cetera. I'm sad to say that one hundred percent of the biphobia I have experienced in my lifetime has come from the LGB(T) community. People in the mainstream LGBT community push their "everybody's valid uwu" hugbox mentality, but they won't hesitate to brake out the stereotypes when it comes to "why wouldn't you date a trans person? I thought you were bi? Don't you like everybody?" They may not mean to do it, but they do it all the same. Even here within our own little separatist LGB circle, you still hear about it. People will talk about posts from truelesbians (and they're supposed to be our sister subreddit!) where they all rant about bi girls being gross. That's especially saddening to see, because all of these sister subreddits are supposed to support one another. I will always defend the whole "you can choose not to date anyone for any reason", but I have seen some genuinely hateful disgusting things from a few people in there, that I think are unwarranted. Just say you prefer to only date other lesbians and let that be the end of it.

Realizing all these things as I've gotten older has made me realize that a lot of my relationship problems growing up stemmed from my own internalized homophobia and biphobia, so...fun times.