"Homer's Phobia" was the show's first episode to revolve entirely around gay themes and received a positive critical response both for its humor and anti-homophobia message.

Marge tries to sell a family heirloom — an "authentic" American Civil War doll — to Cockamamie's, a collectibles shop.

Despite this, the Simpsons take an instant liking to John, and invite him to their house, where he is fascinated by the many campy items the family owns.

Hoping to turn Bart heterosexual, Homer forces him to stare at a cigarette billboard featuring scantily clad women.

With help from Lisa and Marge, John uses a Japanese Santa Claus robot to scare away the reindeer and save the hunting party.

[5] Mike B. Anderson directed the episode, telling The Gold Coast Bulletin: "When I read the script I was enthralled, not only because of the visual possibilities, but also because the story felt very solid.

Instead of Homer, Bart, Barney, and Moe going deer hunting and ending up at "Santa's Village" they would go back to the steel mill.

The song "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by C+C Music Factory is played twice during the episode: first as the steel mill transforms into a disco, and second over the alternate closing credits.

[4] Homer's record collection includes music by The New Christy Minstrels and The Wedding of Lynda Bird Johnson, the albums Loony Luau and Ballad of the Green Berets by Staff Sgt.

[3] Items in John's store include several buttons endorsing political campaigns of Richard Nixon, Dan Quayle, and Bob Dole as well as an issue of TV Guide owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis that features the title characters from the sitcom Laverne & Shirley on the cover.

[3] John's car, which bears a striking resemblance to the Cadillac driven by Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), honks the first bar of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz (1939), referencing Judy Garland's status as a gay icon.

When John takes the Simpson family on a driving tour of Springfield's shopping district, he points out a store where he claims that the Mexican film actress Lupe Vélez bought the toilet she drowned in.

On a System 7 Mac-like interface, the user attempts to sign in, getting to a stalled progress bar titled "loading family".

The unseen user, presumably frustrated with the delay, clicks the "Cancel" button repeatedly, triggering the "Sosumi" alert to be played each time in response.

[7] "Homer's Phobia" has been cited as a significant part of The Simpsons' exploration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) themes.

[9] Alan Frutkin gave the episode a positive write-up in the LGBT-interest magazine The Advocate, calling it "vintage Simpsons.

"[4] In the book Leaving Springfield, Matthew Henry praised the episode's critiquing of "the most common misconception about homosexuality: namely that gayness is somehow contagious", as well as its other themes.

[16] Catharine Lumby of the University of Sydney cited the episode as an example of good satire as it "managed to explore a lot of [homosexual] issues in quite a deep way [...] without being overtly political", which she claimed, along with the episode's humor, made its anti-homophobia message more successful than that of other gay-themed shows like Queer as Folk.

[29] John Patterson of The Guardian wrote that Waters' appearance "felt to me like a summit meeting between the most influential pop-culture figures of the last 25 years".

[32] In June 2003, Igor Smykov sued the Russian television channel REN TV on claims that The Simpsons, along with Family Guy, were "morally degenerate and promoted drugs, violence and homosexuality".

"[34] Gunning also argued that the episode was "groundbreaking" because Homer's fear of a gay man, voiced by John Waters, was mocked, rather than Waters' character, and heralded the episode for being "one of the first attempts to break down the invisible barrier faced by gay characters" while noting it lampooned the hypermasculinity of Homer's friends.