After years of progrs on gay rights, how did the US bee so anti-LGBTQ+? | US news | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA
• AM I ANTI-GAY?
• HOW DO I KNOW I’M NOT REALLY GAY/STRAIGHT?
• A RSIAN REALY TV SHOW LLED 'I'M NOT GAY' MAK 8 NTTANTS GUS WHICH IS GAY — AND 'S HOSTED BY A RIGHT-WG POLICIAN
• BEG AGAST GAY MARRIAGE DON'T MAKE YOU A HOMOPHOBE
• ANTIGAY
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA

Even if you don’t nsir yourself homophobic, takg some time to reflect on your negative feelgs and attus n help unver any subnsc bias that you may have. The way homophobia exhibs today looks far ls like an irratnal fear – as most phobias are – and more like a “ratnal disapproval of s effects on society”, as stated a piece by The Atlantic on how the md ratnaliz homophobia. Homophobic parents may kick their children out of their hom for beg gay, and homophobic bulli may tnt, rile up, attack, or ostracize their peers who don’t act or intify as straight.

This type of homophobia n be scribed as “liberal homophobia” and n manift the followg ways: hopg that homosexuals try to supprs their sexualy, wantg gay people to keep their relatnships private, and sistg that gay people should nform to societal “norms”. LGBTQ people, spe beg queer themselv, may also exhib negative attus towards gay people and harbor homophobic feelgs as a rult of learng and ternalizg homophobic thoughts and behavrs growg up.

Acrdg to IDRlabs, a pany that publish psychologil tts onle, this tt is “wily ced the empiril lerature and is nsired one of the most valid stments for measurg homophobia. As stated the paper published by Wright, Adams, and Bernat, the tt nsists of three factors: “a factor that asss maly negative gnns regardg homosexualy, a factor that asss primarily negative affect and avoidance of homosexual dividuals, and a factor that asss negative affect and aggrsn toward homosexual dividuals. Acrdg to PBS’ Frontle, which reproduced the sle on s webse as part of the “rourc” sectn for s piece on “The Asslt on Gay Ameri”, the Wright, Adams, and Bernat Homophobia Sle is “not a perfect measure of anti-gay feelgs or ias, and is not a predictor of potential for anti-gay vlence.

AM I ANTI-GAY?

What this means is that takg the tt outsi of actual rearch ndns don’t get you a scientifilly accurate asssment of your psychologil profile, particularly wh how you feel about gay people. So, if you’re male and you want to nont your homophobic tennci, you need to reasss your relatnship wh relign as well as your relatnship wh masculy. Maybe they should terrogate their own prient terts other people’s love, get at the root and figure out why the ia of male timacy ril the past few weeks, several rappers have ma sensive — or full-on homophobic — statements about gay people.

Fend DaBaby, sayg that gay people had gone om beg bullied to dog the bullyg, simply bee they had mand acuntabily om DaBaby, urgg him to apologize and phg mic ftivals to drop him om their lps. About a week after DaBaby’s rant, Boosie Badazz, a hip-hop artist who me up the 1990s, went after Lil Nas X, one of the rare rappers who are openly, unapologetilly, explosns-of-glter gay, threateng to asslt me say first that the untry has quickly evolved on the acceptance of gayns, and that clus an evolutn among Black people.

I don’t see a gay agenda this story but an anti-gay first, let me say this: Whenever I enunter a passnate homophobe, my md immediately foc on his passn. I have always ntend that all of the -isms and -phobias are s, that a society that creat a hierarchy of humany wh whe, straight, cisgenr men at the apex, every person who is not whe or straight or cisgenr or male gets assigned a lower orr of that sense, racism and sexism, homophobia and transphobia all branch om the same one bias n fluence and amplify a society that treats racism as a sport, which each racial group is jockeyg agast the others, all of them shadowed by a culture of whe supremacy laced wh misogyny, anythg that rc your percentage of straight mal or “femiz” them is seen as weakeng the Black people bee agents agast Black power and Black liberatn, a weight on the this dulent this is adopted, traracial terror picks up where terracial terror left off.

HOW DO I KNOW I’M NOT REALLY GAY/STRAIGHT?

It is not the gay Black person who be an stment of a whe supremacist attack on Black masculy; is the Black homophobe who be the stment of opprsn agast his own is important to pot out that the racist and the homophobe often employ the same tactics. Homophob often e the same tactic, claimg that they are protectg children om is precisely the fense Boosie Badazz ed when appearg on “The Breakfast Club” rad show, at one pot seemgly exprsg a fear that if rappers didn’t speak out agast certa exprsns of gayns, an entire generatn of children uld be aga, to clarify: There is no amount of exposure that n make a straight man prefer a penis or a gay one prefer a vaga.

Sexual attractn and sexualy jt don’t work that this simplistic notn of sexualy oms is that there are also gay children who have known they were different for as long as they have known anythg, and those children serve reprentatn and visibily; they need to know that there is nothg wrong, broken or evil about them, so that they, too, n feel normal and seen. On Tuday, Boosie Badazz troduced the world to his gay manager an Instagram post an attempt to monstrate that he uld not be You n be racist wh Black iends and homophobic wh gay on.

A RSIAN REALY TV SHOW LLED 'I'M NOT GAY' MAK 8 NTTANTS GUS WHICH IS GAY — AND 'S HOSTED BY A RIGHT-WG POLICIAN

@CharlMBlow • Facebook A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 19 of the New York edn wh the headle: The Anti-Gay Agenda. 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. The rearch, published the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Personaly and Social Psychology, reveals the nuanc of prejudic like homophobia, which n ultimately have dire nsequenc.

"Sometim people are threatened by gays and lbians bee they are fearg their own impuls, a sense they 'doth prott too much, '" Ryan told LiveScience. The rearchers said quicker reactn time for "me" and "gay, " and a slower associatn of "me" wh "straight" would dite said an implic gay orientatn. " To gge homophobia a hoehold, stunts rpond to ems such as, "It would be upsettg for my mom to fd out she was alone wh a lbian" or "My dad avoids gay men whenever possible.

BEG AGAST GAY MARRIAGE DON'T MAKE YOU A HOMOPHOBE

Participants dited their own level of homophobia, both overt and implic; word-pletn tasks, stunts wrote down the first three words that me to md when prompted wh some of the words' letters. "In a predomately heterosexual society, 'know thyself' n be a challenge for many gay dividuals, " lead thor Netta Weste, a lecturer at the Universy of Essex the Uned Kgdom, said a statement.

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.

People nial about their own sexual orientatn, perhaps a nial fostered by thorarian and homophobic parents, may feel a threat om other gay and lbian dividuals. And 2010, proment anti-gay activist and -founr of nservative Fay Rearch Council Gee Rekers was reportedly spotted 2010 wh a male rt rented om Acrdg to news reports, the rt nfirmed Rekers is gay.

ANTIGAY

Ron DeSantis signed a so-lled “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law, rtrictg rmatn about LGBTQ people that state’s public schools and leavg LGBTQ young people fear for their safety. Anti-LGBTQ groups primarily nsist of Christian Right groups but also clu such anizatns as the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH) that purport to be scientific. I don't unrstand the statement sayg 'I don't like homosexualy, I don't thk 's the way of life, I thk marriage is between man and woman but I am not anti gay'.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

In orr to have doubts about one’s sexual inty, a sufferer need not ever have had a homo- or heterosexual experience, or any type of sexual experience at all. ” Some people’s doubts are further plited by havg such experienc as hearg other people talkg or lookg their directn and thkg that the people mt be analyzg their behavr or appearance and talkg about them – discsg how they mt be gay (or straight).

Let’s face , gay people have always been an opprsed mory wh our culture, and to sudnly thk of beg this posn, and to be stigmatized this way, n be ighteng. I have sometim wonred if those who experience the most distrs om such thoughts as the do so bee they were raised wh more strongly homophobic or anti-gay attus to beg wh, or if is simply bee one’s sexualy n be such a basic doubt.

Lookg at attractive men or women, or pictur of them, or readg sexually oriented lerature or pornography (hetero- or homosexual), to see if they are sexually excg.