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So, I saw a lot of “but why is there even homophobia is Equestria?” sort of questions, both on here and on derpi. It’s a good question and got me thinking. I had my reasons but they were mostly nebulous.
So I’m going to ignore the golden rule of storytelling and tell rather than show for the sake of brevity. After all, I think most of us would rather get back to cute princess ponies shenanigans rather than me trying to illustrate headcanons.
TL;DR: Ponies have their unreasonable people and ideologies too. Homophobia is not as widespread or as violent as it is our own world, but it still exists.
Before now, I just had a vague idea based on that tl;dr. I’ll just take that idea and run with it for the first draft of:
Gay Pony History Story Time
Back long before Luna’s banishment, she wasn’t exactly shy about how she felt about other mares and even Celestia was known to have an occasional fling with another mare. While the nobles families preferred procreative unions for most of their children for the sake of continuing bloodlines and all that, they certainly weren’t averse to a daughter marrying one of the sisters. The attitude of the general populace was that, while odd and curious, homosexuality wasn’t necessarily wrong. It was just a thing that happened to a few ponies sometimes, considered at the time to be like a mild birth defect. As long as the pony in question could contribute to society, they were tolerated. After all, with disease, famine, raiding, and lots of hungry predators, ponies needed every bit of help from each other. That’s not to say everyone was perfectly compassionate. As we’ve seen from even modern ponies, some like to cast down any ‘others’ to make themselves feel better. But having an openly gay near-immortal princess certainly helped things.
Sometime during Celestia’s solo reign, the pony scientific revolution happened. While largely focused on the forces of magic, other fields such as naturalist studies also advanced. The public interpretation of Darwin-like ideas became bastardized over time. Some began to view those who did not fit the desired mold as a detriment to the advancement of ponykind. Eugenics itself never got as popular with ponies as it did with humans. Celestia ensured that nothing remotely resembling such a thing eked its way into policy but she refused to cross ethical lines about stifling ideas and speech. So the idea persisted that some ponies weren’t as good as others. This was not as deeply ingrained as in human cultures and outright violence was never tolerated, but it was still there in the back of the public’s mind.
Due to these popular early studies, homosexuality gained a stigma. As it didn’t seem to serve any immediate evolutionary purpose, it was thought of a defect, unnatural and undesirable. These studies were eventually debunked and more theories about why a small population of exclusively homosexual individuals would be beneficial came about, but not before the damage was done. It’s important to remember that the general population isn’t always fully aware of what the scientific community is doing and how to interpret studies. It doesn’t help that news sources often prefer to publish the more sensational material and often fail at reporting corrections.
And that brings us to the present. The anti-LGBT sentiment persists because of remaining stigma and because ponies, like people, are often uncomfortable with ideas they can’t understand. Most know that it’s no big deal, even if they find it kind of gross sometimes, but the loud minority ruins things. It’s largely the same type of individuals that in the human world would believe in fad diets, chemtrails, anti-vaccination hype, climate change denial, etc. They think they’re doing the right thing and aren’t inherently evil, just wildly misinformed and sometimes hurting others by their ignorance.
End Gay Pony History Story Time
I could probably come up with other reasons why this attitude would exist in Equestria, but I think it would boil down to the same premise: pony society can be irrational and unpredictably weird too. I think that if they didn’t have near-immortal rulers toning things down and promoting friendship, pony society might look a little more like our own. They also might have technologically progressed faster, but that’s for some other time.
As for why I added in a little bit of homophobia when I could’ve made pony society a bit more ideal, I draw what I can relate to. I sometimes express my own fears and frustrations through silly pony drawings. It’s cathartic for me.
As for how it relates to actual canon, feel free to disagree. It’s just my headcanon made mostly to justify that catharsis.

safe2273322 artist:silfoe1576 princess luna121974 twilight sparkle372022 alicorn337227 pony1706264 royal sketchbook618 g42131598 dialogue100628 duo206890 female1915305 gray background17148 implied lesbian5117 mare810029 open mouth258167 shadow7451 simple background640458 smiling433807 speech bubble44391 spread wings106369 talking12164 twilight sparkle (alicorn)155146

Comments

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Background Pony #B89F
@Background Pony #36D7  
Whoops. Clicked the wrong “reply” button. I look like a dolt.
 
Then again, I guess I already did for talking about Nazi anything in a positive light, even ironically. So take that, me.
Background Pony #B89F
@Telyna
 
I know, right? And she’s going against the best kind of science! Nazi science! Without super amazing Nazi science, we wouldn’t have all these amazing wonders, like gas-masked super-soldiers or incredibly powerful tesla cannons! Or the Red Skull!
 
I mean… none of those things are real, but then again, neither is the supposed science you’re siting. I figured it’s only fair to operate on the same playing field.
Darth Sonic
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends.
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2018) - Celebrated Derpibooru's six year anniversary with friends.

@SilFoe  
Gonna point out that an avatar like doesn’t always equal neonazi. I mean, it did in this case, but I can see plenty using that avatar in a purely jocular manner.
SilFoe
Magnificence - Artist with 100+ Safe/Suggestive images with over 100 upvotes, and 5+ Questionable/Explicit images with over 350 upvotes
Chaotic Little Trees - 1000+ images under their artist tag
The Power of Love - Made a piece of artwork loved by 1000 users
A Really Hyper Artist - 500+ images under their artist tag
A Really Classy Artist - 250+ images under their artist tag
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Artist -

@RainbowMeatballs  
I love being called horrible, diseased, degenerate and a child abuser. Really makes my day to be demonized for something I had no control over or things that are completely fictitious. But hey, judging by your icon, you probably think I deserve to die some horrible death so probably not much room for conversation here.
Waiting for Godot

Just stumbled across your work, luv it!  
In my opinion, a picture of yours can “tell a thousand words”.  
Having said that, I think,in all sincerity, you have a buried talent for prose as well.  
Would you consider fimfiction in all of your spare time?
 
Best.
kleptomage
Cutest Little Devil - Celebrated the 14th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Pixel Perfection - I still call her Lightning Bolt
Lunar Guardian - Earned a place among the ranks of the most loyal New Lunar Republic soldiers (April Fools 2023).
Magnificent Metadata Maniac - #1 Assistant
Perfect Pony Plot Provider - 10+ uploads with over 350 upvotes or more (Questionable/Explicit)
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012
Fine Arts - Two hundred uploads with a score of over a hundred (Safe/Suggestive)

I’ve always thought lesbian relationships would be fairly common in Equestria given that a large majority of the population is female.
Jaggarunder
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

potato wizard
that description  
that feel when you walk through a door and accidentally in on a hundreds-strong rally of zealous moon-landing deniers, right in the middle of their 165-slide powerpoint presentation, and they all stop and look at you
 
I clicked because I thought it was a cute picture and wanted to see what the characters were saying  
I’m so sorry  
Carry on  
*backs away slowly*
Telyna

>So the idea persisted that some ponies weren’t as good as others.  
This is a universal truth. Otherwise Celestia wouldn’t have a school for gifted unicorns(master race)
RainbowMeatballs
Duck -

Twilight… How exactly are you going to lecture ponies on something that goes against science? Judging by how nice Equestria seems, there must be a lot of “homophobes”.