Homophobia - What Really Drives It?

I have often noted that some of the worst gay-hating homophobes among the professional Christian set strike me as a tad too hysterical over gays and gay sex. Yes, there are some Christianists who are solely motivated by power and the money they can rake in via anti-gay propaganda. James Dobson and Tony Perkins strike me as falling in this latter category. But the former group is much larger and includes for example Robert Knight, Peter LaBarbera, Matt Staver, Matt Barber, etc., These guys are almost downright deranged when it comes to the level of their homophobia. Why? Because in my view they are either self-hating closet case or have severe insecurities about their own masculinity and sexual orientation. Why else be so afraid? A column by a therapist with over 30 years experience in the Sonoma Valley Sun seems to support my conclusions. Here are some highlights:

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With the passage of Proposition 8 last year, we must confront the reality that, in spite of tremendous progress, we still live in society with widespread homophobia. Gay people face a level of discrimination, prejudice and anger unlike any other group. They still face a public debate as to whether their very existence is acceptable. Could anybody get significant media time making the argument that any other race, creed or religion was inherently inferior or cursed by God?

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The archeological and sociological record indicates that homosexuality exists in every society throughout history. While penalties as severe as death have driven gay behavior underground at times, it appears to exist everywhere in roughly the same percentage of people. This constancy of both persistence and level are the strongest evidence that sexual orientation is simply a normal part of the human genetic equation.

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Yet since it provokes so much fear, it must be perceived as a threat. What is the threat that homosexuality holds for heterosexuals? . . . If we were all straight, then same sex groups would be instantly free of sexual tension. More than some nonsense about being from different planets, this is why men and women tend to congregate with their own gender. No sexual preening behavior is needed. While a man or woman is instantly identifiable, not so for a gay person.

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What if they’re not the only one? What if you felt attracted to them before you found out? What if they want you? Better to chase them out of the group while firmly establishing yourself as straight, perhaps by attacking them. Ridicule, marginalization, and persecution have been used throughout history to purge the group of that which is different. But as has always been the case, it is the oppressor who is really afraid, and the fear of confronting what it is in themselves, that causes them to persecute another. It is their fear of what is within that drives them.

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More to the point is a column entitled "Homophobic? Then You're Probably Gay" by Johann Hari at Huffington Post that contains some gems of information concerning the severely homophobic. Here are a few highlights:

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Professor Henry Adams at the University of Georgia conducted a major study in the 1990s, where he took several groups of men who identified as heterosexual and expressed hostility to gays, and wired them up so the blood flow to their penises could be monitored. He then showed them gay porn -- and some 80 percent became aroused. He concluded that since "most homophobes demonstrate significant sexual arousal to homosexual erotic stimuli", anti-gay hatred is probably "a form of latent homosexuality."

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But we know from decades of sexual research that almost everyone -- especially as a teenager -- has a period when they have omnivorous sexual urges, with attraction to the 'wrong' gender cropping up for a while. . . . . The question is: how do you deal with them? If you see this as an interesting, natural part of human experience, they will soon fade from your mind. If you see them as shameful or immoral, they will fester -- and you will subconsciously project them outwards, onto the demonic, disgusting fags, who should be punished for tempting you.

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How do we break through this? It has to start with honesty. Homosexuality is not some unnatural intrusion, wrought by demonic perverts, as the pre-modern religious texts so absurdly assert. It is an inevitable part of nature -- birds do it, bees do it -- and it is, fleetingly, part of the sexual development of most teenagers. If you are full of hate for homosexuals, the evidence suggests you have a psychological problem, based on denying part of yourself.

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If only the Christianist gay-haters would go and get some much needed mental health care, the world would certainly be a far better place.