The father of the guy who shot and killed scores of men at a gay nightclub in Orlando the other night said yesterday that his son became especially enraged a few years ago at the sight of two men kissing.
This suggests to me that the shooter perhaps suffered from a certain form of homophobia — a form that’s not uncommon, according to scientific studies.
Wikipedia puts it this way:
Some studies have shown that people who are homophobic are more likely to have repressed homosexual desires.[ In 1996, a controlled study of 64 heterosexual men (half said they were homophobic by experience, with self-reported orientation) at the University of Georgia found that men who were found to be homophobic (as measured by the Index of Homophobia) were considerably more likely to experience more erectile responses when exposed to homoerotic images than non-homophobic men. Another study in 2012 arrived at similar results when researchers found that students who came from “the most rigid anti-gay homes” were most likely to reveal repressed homosexual attraction. The researchers said that this explained why some religious leaders who denounce homosexuality are later revealed to have secret homosexual relations. They noted that “these people are at war with themselves and are turning this internal conflict outward.”
(Snip)
Internalized homophobia can cause discomfort with and disapproval of one’s own sexual orientation. Ego-dystonic sexual orientation or egodystonic homophobia, for instance, is a condition characterized by having a sexual orientation or an attraction that is at odds with one’s idealized self-image, causing anxiety and a desire to change one’s orientation or become more comfortable with one’s sexual orientation. Such a situation may cause extreme repression of homosexual desires. In other cases, a conscious internal struggle may occur for some time, often pitting deeply held religious or social beliefs against strong sexual and emotional desires.
We’ll probably never know for sure if this was the situation with the shooter in Florida. But it’s worth further consideration, not only in this case but in connection with homophobia in general.
And it behooves all men who harbor a great hatred of gays to seek professional help. Some of them perhaps will learn that they have their own homosexual urges
by Pat Cunningham
Source – Recordnet.com
