The social construction of deviance is illustrated by the fact that homophobia has replaced homosexuality as deviant. By “social construction of deviance,” we mean 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, illness, and 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 decriminalized homosexuality based on new medical definitions and legal cases, following the gay rights movement which made people understand that homosexuals should be considered and treated as normal people . While some religions still call homosexuality a sin, others have changed their view of homosexuality and some even bless same-sex unions. Just as the status of homosexuality was changing, psychologists began to define anti-gay views as homophobic. People...