this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2024
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I think some of that is right, and maybe all of it for a portion of people, but I also believe there are gay or bi people who hate that about themselves and that causes them to be homophobic. I don’t think that’s a large percentage of homophobic people, but I do think it’s not zero.
I don’t blame the gay community or gay people for their own oppression. I blame these bigots, as well as all of the other bigots they join. It doesn’t matter to me what you truly believe underneath or whether your actions are motivated by self hatred.
Oh yeah statistically it's gotta be that some homophobes are queer. Queer people are 10% of the population, and homophobes are even higher. Two groups that large, there's got to be crossover. Historically, it would have been even moreso the case.
I'm just unconvinced that queer people are the majority of homophobes because that makes no sense, and I'm unconvinced that the study randomly found mostly bi homophobes. The sheer prevalence of the gay homophobe trope is out of proportion with the conditions that would have been capable of creating homophobia in society in the first place and sustaining it.
For one thing, the study asked the men to rate themselves on the Kinsey scale. Those men fully believed they had never felt attraction to another man. And only 20% of the homophobes showed no penile reaction. Meanwhile, 66% of the gay-accepting men had no reaction.
Yeah, I think often the nuance in the criticism that’s easy to miss is that often when people automatically assume a homophobe is gay it can be used to absolve straight society of the homophobia it perpetuates by pretending homophobia is mostly an issue of self hate rather than one in which members of an oppressed class are taught to hate themselves by less focused bigots of the privileged group, and then are used to do the dirty work of homophobic violence. This is notable in conversion therapy where the people running it are “ex gay” but the people sending their loved ones or telling people to are straight.
Anecdotal time: I have a friend who is a staunch Republican and christian. He is also extremely gay. He denies it and tells me its wrong when I tell him to just accept himself and stop worrying about it so much. I also have another acquaintance who tells him its wrong every time he thinks gay thoughts.
Dont feel too bad for anyone in this story. I forced them all to read Mandate for Leadership and they all still said they'd vote for Trump.