Are Homophobic People Really Gay and Not Acceptg It? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• BEG GAY IS JT AS HEALTHY AS BEG STRAIGHT
• PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• ARE HOMOPHOBIC PEOPLE REALLY GAY AND NOT ACCEPTG IT?
• MENTAL HEALTH LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR (LGBT) YOUTH
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• DIVERSY AND INCLN: IMPACTS ON PSYCHOLOGIL WELLBEG AMONG LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER COMMUNI

BEG GAY IS JT AS HEALTHY AS BEG STRAIGHT

In 1975, the Amerin Psychologil Associatn publicly supported this move, statg that "homosexualy per se impli no impairment judgment, reliabily or general social and votnal pabili…(and mental health profsnals should) take the lead removg the stigma of mental illns long associated wh homosexual orientatn.

Dpe the persistence of stereotyp that portray lbian, gay, and bisexual people as disturbed, several s of rearch and clil experience have led all mastream medil and mental health anizatns this untry to nclu that the orientatns reprent normal forms of human experience. Helpful rpons of a therapist treatg an dividual who is troubled about her or his same sex attractns clu helpg that person actively pe wh social prejudic agast homosexualy, succsfully rolve issu associated wh and rultg om ternal nflicts, and actively lead a happy and satisfyg life.

PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS

The phrase “g out” is ed to refer to several aspects of lbian, gay, and bisexual persons’ experienc: self-awarens of same-sex attractns; the tellg of one or a few people about the attractns; wispread disclosure of same-sex attractns; and intifitn wh the lbian, gay, and bisexual muny. If they are a heterosexual relatnship, their experienc may be que siar to those of people who intify as heterosexual unls they choose to e out as bisexual; that se, they will likely face some of the same prejudice and discrimatn that lbian and gay dividuals enunter. The accatn of g outdated material and viatg to realms beyond the spe of one's expertise impli two thgs; first, impli that there actually is rmatn that is more up-to-date than what the nun prented on the topic of homosexualy, and sendly impli that there are credible experts who are more qualified to teach or speak on the topic of homosexualy.

Hence, is necsary to provi a summary and analysis of that purported up-to-date scientific evince which supports the claim that homosexualy is not a mental two groups that are typilly emed thorative and credible experts on mental disorrs the Uned Stat are the Amerin Psychologil Associatn (APA) and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn; th, I will prent their stanc on homosexualy and then analyze the “scientific evince” that they claim supports their stanc.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

As a rult of their ficienci, the credibily of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn and the APA, at least their claims regardg human sexualy, is lled to Amerin Psychologil Associatn and the Amerin Psychiatric AssociatnI will beg by scribg the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, and I will then prent their stanc on the topic of homosexualy. Dog so will provi more evince of the stance of both the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Two Associatns’ Stance on HomosexualyThe APA wr:Same-sex sexual attractns, behavr, and orientatns per se are normal and posive variants of human sexualy— other words, they do not dite eher mental or velopmental disorrs.

(Brief of Amici Curiae 2003, 1)Hence, the basic stance of the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn is that homosexualy is not a mental disorr but is rather a normal form of human sexualy, and they propose that their stance is based on signifint scientific evince. )Aled KseyThe APA Task Force document proceeds by cg two books wrten by Aled Ksey 1948 and 1953 (Sexual Behavr the Human Male and Sexual Behavr the Human Female):At the same time that the pathologizg views of homosexualy Amerin psychiatry and psychology were beg dified, untervailg evince was accumulatg that this stigmatizg view was ill found. Therefore, there is a normal variatn (or a normal “ntuum”) of sexual replacg homosexualy wh the exampl of body tegry inty disorr and self-harm/self-mutilatn Aled Ksey's and the APA's argument (that is, if we follow the logic of Ksey and the APA) the argument would be as follows:.

Ford and Beach also “pot out that among non-human primat both mal and femal engage homosexual activy” (Gentile and Miller 2009), the APA thors suggt that bee two rearchers 1951 found that homosexual sex is observed some humans and animals then the ncln follows that there is “nothg unnatural about .

ARE HOMOPHOBIC PEOPLE REALLY GAY AND NOT ACCEPTG IT?

Evelyn Hooker admistered a battery of standard psychologil tts to homosexual and heterosexual men who were matched for age, IQ, and tn … She nclud om her data that homosexualy is not herently associated wh psychopathology and that “homosexualy as a clil enty do not exist. My foc for this paper is the irrelevant endpot—“adjtment”—ed by Hooker as scientific evince supportg the claim that homosexualy is normal; I foc on that endpot bee as of 2014 “adjtment” is still the endpot ced by the major associatns as scientific evince supportg the claim that homosexualy is a “normal variatn of human sexual orientatn. Gonsrek impli that if sexual orientatn is “related” to psychologil adjtment, then one uld nsir homosexually cled people to be mentally disorred; if, however, there is no difference adjtment measurements of heterosexuals and homosexuals, then (acrdg to Gonsrek) homosexualy is not a mental disorr.

MENTAL HEALTH LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR (LGBT) YOUTH

The brief then offers a few more catns of scientific evince supportg that claim; one article ced is a review study om 1978 which also looked at “adjtment” and “nclus that fdgs to date have not monstrated that the homosexual dividual is any ls psychologilly adjted than his heterosexual unterpart” (Hart et al.

THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS

” Gonsrek claims that bee homosexuals are siar to heterosexuals measur of prsn, self-teem, relatnship disrd, and sexual disrd, tomatilly follows that homosexualy is not a disorr, as he not: “The general ncln is clear: The studi overwhelmgly suggt that homosexualy per se is not related to psychopathology or psychologil adjtment” (Gonsrek 1991, 115–36).

Hence, there are multiple mental disorrs which measurg adjtment has no relevance whatsoever to the mental disorr; this is a major ficiency the lerature ed as scientific evince to support the ncln that homosexualy is not a mental is a signifint fdg, although I am not the first to mentn the problem wh diagnosg mental disorrs by lookg at distrs, social functng, or other endpots that are clud unr the terms “adjtment” and “adaptatn. Ronald Bayer summarized the events surroundg the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's (1973) cisn by notg that Spzer'srtricted fn of mental disorrs, articulated after he had cid that homosexualy had been appropriately classified, entailed two elements: For a behavr to be termed a psychiatric disorr, had to be regularly acpanied by subjective distrs and/or “some generalized impairment social effectivens or functng. In orr to be nsistent wh their logic ed to normalize homosexualy, they mt normalize all other sexual actns that stimulate one to the pot of asm that do not e bad measurements of “adjtment” or rult impaired social functng; is te that they also allow a diagnosis of a sexual disorr if a viance “harm” to another, but that is only if there is lack of nsent.

DIVERSY AND INCLN: IMPACTS ON PSYCHOLOGIL WELLBEG AMONG LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER COMMUNI

Unfortunately, fatally flawed reasong has served as the basis for “rigoro” and “scientific evince” supportg the claim that homosexualy is not a mental disorr but is rather a normal variant of human sexual nnot nclu (wh Aled Ksey) that a human behavr is normal simply bee is more mon than prevly assumed—otherwise all human behavrs, cludg serial killg, would have to be nsired normal. The mothers were then classified further to one of five groups: those wh gay male only-children (n = 8), those wh gay male offsprg that had no olr brothers (n = 23), those wh gay male offsprg wh olr brothers (n = 23), those wh heterosexual male only-children (n = 11), and those wh heterosexual male offsprg wh siblgs (n = 61).

As birth weight tends to crease over succsive pregnanci, the parisons were limed to first live-born sons only (n = 63); this left 4 gay male only-children, 7 gay mal wh no olr brothers, 14 heterosexual mal wh gay younger brothers, 10 heterosexual male only-children, and 28 heterosexual mal wh siblgs. Skorska et al (2016) pos that this might have somethg to do wh some mothers showg a greater immune rponse agast male offsprg, rultg more fetal loss, the rult beg that such mothers are both ls likely to have any children at all and more likely to have gay male children particular.

If mothers of gay men do not tend to have a greater rat of female-to-male offsprg, this would st some doubt on the explanatn (and, sce the only data I've heard reports that gay men tend to have more olr brothers, seems they would have noticed the sister pot by now if existed). On the other hand, if this is a more general immune reactn agast fetal bodi, regardls of their sex, we would not expect such a pattern ( might also predict that mothers takg immunosupprsants would be ls likely to have gay offsprg/misrry, but thgs are unlikely to be that simple owg to the fact that other effects would rult too). Bee there is a arth of general rearch regardg this muny, and no studi to date that e quantative methods, we cid to explore this muny quantatively—g an Inter-nvenience sample, followed by a purposive suggted, the Bear culture exhibs and valu a greater sense of domant (but not necsarily domeerg) “thentic masculy” parison to other subcultur wh the gay muny (e.