Pop star Ricky Martin has reportedly told GQ Australia that he used to bully gay people, attributing it to internalized homophobia, according to a few sources, including the Herald Sun. Martin came out as a gay man in 2010. Apparently, he struggled with his sexual orientation for a long time before he finally came to terms with it.
I wonder how many others who bully gay folks are actually struggling with their own gay impulses, so they take it out on gay people, either with direct bullying or homophobic comments to their buddies. Or they lead/join in demonstrations against same-sex marriage, thinking that by oppressing others, they might purge their own desires.
Indeed, the LGBT community might keep this in mind when dealing with apparent homophobes — they might actually be tortured souls fighting with the guilt of primitive religious fundamentalism vs. their own nature.
Psych Central had a report called Denying One’s Desires Tied to Homophobia in April 2012. Wrote the author, Rick Nauert:
New studies suggest those who express virulent dislike of homosexuals may have an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex. Researchers also discovered homophobia is more pronounced in individuals who grew up with authoritarian parents who forbade such desires.
The study is the first to document the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear of homosexuals, including self-reported homophobic attitudes, discriminatory bias, implicit hostility towards gays, and endorsement of anti-gay policies.
“Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves,” said Dr. Netta Weinstein, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Essex and the study’s lead author.
“In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,” said co-author Dr. Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester who helped direct the research.
You can read more at the link provided.
Jillian
Jillian Page 
Yeah, this has been a popular idea among gays for years, that people dislike them because they are (OMG!) unknowingly gay themselves. It’s also a lot of hooey. Sure, that applies to some, but we must understand that homosexuality is and always has been (with exceptions) an un-‘normal’ and ‘wrong’ way of being to almost everyone.
Human beings, like all animals, fear difference as a potential threat. That’s a most basic survival instinct, and a good one when living in the wild. ‘Difference’ is an unknown and a possible danger. Humans, though, unlike other animals, can have the intellect to overcome natural instincts. We are capable of much more.
Unfortunately, not all humans are equipped to do so. We call them ‘knuckledraggers’. Proto-humans. These people go through life believing whatever they’ve been taught or told, and haven’t the mental acuity to look beyond. They’re not necessarily evil, just ignorant.
They dislike gays because they haven’t the ability to see them as other than a threat to order. Gays confuse them, frighten them with their ‘difference’. Gays are simply ‘wrong’ to them; wrong!
You might as well try to explain to them that their image of God is based on ancient campfire tales and not some sort of Divine Revelation. Good luck with that!
Pity them, to be sure, and oppose them. But to apply simplistic answers to explain their beliefs and behavior will change nothing and will not foster understanding. Some people ARE like that; they dislike any ‘difference’, and to casually assign that to ‘closet gayness’ misses the greater issue. It’s just one more ‘feel good’ simplistic answer, just like the simplistic answer THEY believe about gays.
Understand this: laws requiring acceptance govern behavior, not personal beliefs. Many, many people don’t like gays for a variety of ‘reasons’, as do they dislike those of different color, religion or nationality, Bigotry is not cured by laws. Laws only contain them from doing what they would like to do, if only they could.
Beware the backlash as world economic conditions continue to worsen and conservatism rises yet again, as it is now and always does in times of trouble.
Hello, Russia?
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Nicely said. Thank you.
Jillian
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