Are Homophob Really Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• ARE HOMOPHOBIC PEOPLE REALLY GAY AND NOT ACCEPTG IT?
• ARE HOMOPHOB REALLY GAY?
• THE EVERLASTG EFFECTS OF HOMOPHOBIA AND WHY 'S NOT JT GAY PEOPLE THAT SUFFER
• THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA

ARE HOMOPHOBIC PEOPLE REALLY GAY AND NOT ACCEPTG IT?

Cred: Getty ImagHomophob should nsir a ltle self-reflectn, suggts a new study fdg those dividuals who are most hostile toward gays and hold strong anti-gay views may themselv have same-sex sir, albe unrver on.

Those participants who reported their heterosexualy spe havg hidn same-sex sir were also the most likely to show hostily toward gay dividuals, cludg self-reported anti-gay attus, endorsement of anti-gay polici and discrimatn such as supportg harsher punishments for homosexuals. A seri of studi recently published the prtig Journal of Personaly and Social Psychology found higher levels of homophobia dividuals wh unacknowledged attractns to the same sex, particularly when they grew up wh thorarian parents who also held homophobic attus.

In the Universy of Rochter's prs release, Netta Weste, the study's lead thor, said, "Individuals who intify as straight but psychologil tts show a strong attractn to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lbians bee homosexuals remd them of siar tennci wh themselv. Acrdg to the team of rearchers, this study is the first to document the role that both parentg and sexual orientatn play the formatn of anti-gay attus, cludg self-reported homophobic attus, discrimatory bias, implic hostily towards gays, and endorsement of anti-gay polici.

ARE HOMOPHOB REALLY GAY?

This ngence between implic and explic measur of sexual orientatn predicted a variety of homophobic behavrs, cludg self-reported anti-gay attus, implic hostily towards gays, endorsement of anti-gay polici, and discrimatory bias such as the assignment of harsher punishments for homosexuals. Dpe recent gas gay civil rights, cludg the recent US Supreme Court lgs on marriage, the overturng of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, ” as well as the legalizatn of same-sex marriage many foreign untri, homophobia is alive and well both here and abroad.

Recently Print Vladmir Put signed an anti-propoganda law that rulted the recent arrts of several gay Dutch tourists and may give police the right to arrrt anyone who portrays homosexuay posively cludg LGBT teachers and parents ().

In a 1993 study, levels of homophobia were asssed among 64 men along wh their sexual aroal (measured by creas penile circumference) rponse to erotic vios of heterosexual, same-sex female, and same-sex male enunters.

THE EVERLASTG EFFECTS OF HOMOPHOBIA AND WHY 'S NOT JT GAY PEOPLE THAT SUFFER

Ee Griffh, a recently ceased welterweight and middleweight champn, pummeled an opponent to ath after he had lled him an anti-gay slur, Griffh ntug to punch him the head well after he had clearly won the fight. Add this anecdote to several others cludg that of right wg polician Larry Craig, who pled guilty to lewd behavr toward other men an airport bathroom but who also champned anti-gay legislatn durg his polil reer, and Ted Haggard, lear of the famoly anti-gay Natnal Associatn of the Evangelils, who rigned after was disvered he was engagg male prostut.

In the wake of the Orlando shootg at the Pulse nightclub, there were que a number of speculatns floatg around my social media that the shooter himself had been harborg homosexual urg that he had been tryg to reprs. Reprsn—beg the odd thg that apparently is— this se volved his visg gay nightclubs and g gay datg apps to munite—and prumably have sex—wh other gay men; he might have even been dog all those thgs while tellg himself he had no tert such activi, that they were morally wrong, or at the very least while tryg to keep secret om other people his life.

Before nsirg some new rearch on the hypothis, then, I wanted to take a step back and nsir why, on a theoretil level, we shouldn't expect implic or reprsed homosexual urg to predict homophobic attus particularly well.

THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA

In other words, one of two statements follow, neher of which bo well for the homophobia-as-reprsed-attractn hypothis: (a) lots of people who are homophobic harbor no homosexual urg or (b) many of those who are homophobic harbor such urg. So, if lots of people who do have homosexual urg were homophobic, then adoptg a homophobic stance should actually be expected to posively signal that one is a homosexual, as beg homophobic is somethg lots of (closeted) homosexual people actually do. Th the dilemma of the homophobia-as-reprsn hypothis is highlighted: if only few homophob are meangful homosexual, then homosexualy n't expla much; if many homophob actually are homosexual, then homophobia will be effective at persuadg others one is straight.

When relatnships did exist between implic attractn and explic attus, ually ran the oppose directn of the reprsn hypothis: those who showed implic attractn were ls negative towards homosexuals (albe que mostly). While 's unlikely that queer feelgs live si the heart of every homophobe, a signifint number of anti-LGBT relig and polil lears have ultimately e out or been outed for same-sex feelgs, enunters, or relatnships.