The social construction of deviance is exemplified by the fact that homophobia has replaced homosexuality as deviant. By “social construction of deviance” we understand deviance as the result of different groups in society defining and labeling what is deviant. For example, until recently religion, medicine, and government defined homosexuality as a sin, a disease, and a crime. In the 1970s, psychologists removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders after new research showed that gays and lesbians were just as healthy and unhealthy as heterosexuals. For several decades, governments have decriminalized homosexuality based on new medical definitions and legal cases as a result of the gay rights movement that made people realize that gay people should be viewed and treated as normal people. While some religions still label homosexuality as a sin, others have changed their view on homosexuality and some even bless same-sex unions. At the same time that the status of homosexuality was changing, psychologists began to characterize anti-gay views as homophobic. The people...