Dr. George Henry Weinberga famed psychotherapist who coined the term "homophobia"has died of cancer at age 87.
Weinberg started using the term in the mid-1960s, saying in 1998, "It was a fear of homosexuals which seemed to be associated with a fear of contagion, a fear of reducing the things one fought forhome and family. It was a religious fear, and it had led to great brutality, as fear always does," The New York Times reported.
Weinberg was born in Manhattan. In college, he initially studied math but eventually switched to psychology. He wrote several general books, but was best known for Society and the Healthy Homosexual, one of the first books that disagreed with the then-prevalent idea that homosexuality was a psychological illness.
He also appeared on national TV in the 1970s and 1980s, speaking in support of LGBT rights.
Weinberg is survived by his wife, Dianne Rowe.
The New York Times item is at NYTimes.com/2017/03/22/us/george-weinberg-dead-coined-homophobia.html.