I do not fear homosexuality because I am comfortable with my sexuality.

[trumad]

I always have been. I know who I am and what I am. I am a heterosexual guy and always have been..LOL I do not fear being around Homosexuals because I know that I will remain a heterosexual. I am a heterosexual. I think those who are afraid of the er so-called Homosexual agenda are simply not secure themselves. I think they fear their inner selves and it scares the shit out them that what they long for will come bubbling to the top. They fight it by doing their best to destroy it.

I say this because I know a whole bunch of Right Wing Conservatives and I swear that each and everyone of them are the most insecure neurotic people I've ever met. I walk away from my encounters with these folks shaking my head thinking, WOW, that guy's conflicted.

I would hate to have the head and stomach of a Winger because the heads full of hate and the stomach's always churning....

MHOP

[skooooo]

1. Does that mean...

....you don't call people "girly-men?"

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. LOL, the best part of that

was I don't think Arnold knew that SNL was making fun of him with Hans and Franz.

[Misunderestimator]

2. I think you're obsessed with homosexuality.

Just kidding.... ;)

:bounce:

[trumad]

3. Just you Baby...Just you...

;-)

[trumad]

8. I'm simply trying to understand the Wingers minds when it comes to this...

I've simply concluded that Wingers are simply not comfortable people. LOL (lot's of simplys..)

They get all nervous is a teacher is Gay...They get nervous when they are around gays... Why are they so afraid... I think they're afraid of themselves... What other explanation is there? :shrug:

[Misunderestimator]

11. I really don't think they get nervous at all...

Except for the ones that are closeted homosexuals themselves. They are afraid of either finding out themselves about their homosexuality, or anyone else finding out about them.

The others are just using it as a weapon. They aren't afraid at all. Just like those fire and brimstone preachers really aren't afraid of god's wrath... but they use it as an extremely effective weapon to keep their flock in line.

[trumad]

16. closeted homosexuals

Is it possible to be so closeted that you don't know you are? Is it possible that those deep down closeted tendencies bubble a bit to the surface when they think about or are around homosexuals. Here's a question for you .... Do you think that there are millions of homosexuals throughout the world who don't come out and pretend they are not? I think so....

I think if a er Gay Cosmic Ray hit the earth and the effect was to make people "come out", they'd have to build more Gay Bars.... A lot more...;-)

[Misunderestimator]

24. Yes it is possible. I've known many people who were so repressed

about it, that it took them until they were in their 40s to finally admit it. And yes, I think there are millions of closeted homosexuals around the world... especially in cultures where it is not as accepted as it is in the West.

Gotta love the Gay Cosmic Ray though. What a thought!

[trumad]

33. I carry this with me at all times..Ya never know....

[LizW]

29. Bingo

The obsession of Santorum and others with homosexuality is not about fear, it is about hate. It is about creating an artificial division between people and pitting us against each other so we waste our energy fearing each other and fighting among ourselves and don't see the real enemy.

I once read an old pre-civil war article telling slave owners how to control their slaves and keep them docile. It described how to create division, namely by maintaining two classes of slaves, house slaves and field slaves. The house slaves would be the "higher" class, given priviledges such as better living conditions and the ability to remain with family members. The field slaves would the the "lower" class, living in poorer conditions and having their children sold away as soon as they were of workable age. The resentment of the field slaves toward the house slaves, and the fear of the house slaves that they would lose their status, distracted them all from the central truth that they were all being treated as subhuman by the owner.

This is the purpose behind all the Republican-promoted "culture wars". Every false division created by those in power (race, sex, sexual orientation, class, religion) serves to keep the masses distracted from the fact that the powerful are standing on our backs, one and all. They don't want us to rise up and throw them off, so they keep us busy fearing and fighting each other.

[Misunderestimator]

37. Great post!

:thumbsup: I like the analogy. And it's quite fitting right now. Beware all you heterosexuals out there... if you "become" gay or come out of your closet you will not have the same rights and privileges you currently enjoy. In the sick mind of a closeted gay person who is living in a straight marriage... they made the sacrifice to live a lie and they want to keep those privileges they got by doing so, and like a small child, they don't want to share their toys.

[SemperEadem]

50. they're convinced that their little lives matter so much to everyone else

To hear them talk, it's all about them...

A gay teacher at school?
"They're trying to turn our kids into a league of homosexual automatons who will drop their pants and do it on cue and make us watch."

Self centered, self-absorbed and selfish... it begs the question: Who died and left you God?

[jpgray]

4. Wait until the box turtles come

Then you will be sorry. It's all fun and games until then, isn't it!?

;-)

Why is it when the Republican allege the 'slippery slope' applies, they are always able to give a detailed description of the type of lubricant? :D

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Why...

Whatever do you mean?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. I don't think that's QUITE the case

Personally, I've never been a fan of the theory that people who are homophobic turn out to be homosexual themselves. I'm sure it happens, I just don't think it's the case nearly as often as it's made out to be. I think it's just another example of people hating what they don't understand. Ignorance and unfamiliarity are the two biggest breeders of irrational hatred in our world, after all. I don't see why it'd be much different for this instance.

[trumad]

9. I agree

I'm simply saying that they don't know what the fuck they are so it's scares the shit out of them..... They're simply not comfortable in their own skin. Insecure to the bone about everything including their sexuality.

I went back and read what I wrote up there and I am simply using the word simply to much today. That's my word of the day..SIMPLY

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. Sounds about right

It certainly explains the irrational need to control everything.

[Cats Against Frist]

13. Splitting and Projecting

I do believe that this is often cited both for the tendency toward a totalitarian mindset, as well as homophobia.

People who split and project divide the world up into good objects and bad objects, scapegoat the bad objects, and fail to see things as their integrated whole. The prayer in school argument is another one. Prayer is good. Not-prayer is bad. Everything bad in this world is because there is no prayer in schools.

They say that a lot of times, the tendency for people to do this comes from a split sense of self -- as in the homophobia of someone who is desperately trying to fight their homosexuality.

The good self is "straight," the bad self is "gay." "Gay" gets scapegoated, and the person is overzealous in either hating or pinning societal problems on gays. It can also happen, though, with straight males, who are really are straight, but for some other reason are not totally comfortable with their masculinity -- who are the girliest of "girly-men?" Gays, apparently -- and so the gays are projected upon, so the person can remind themselves (I'm not like THAT).

I would say that Rick Santorum has a MONSTER case of "split & project," as well as some psychotic disturbance, and a bad case of "Christian sentimental bullshit talk."

[trumad]

18. Excellent, excellent post Cat...

[Atman]

12. Not all homophobes are latent homosexuals

But, combined with the degenerative states known as "Conservatism" or "Republicanism," I think the theory takes on added weight. Just watch the righties with any consistency and you see it over and over again...them that rail the loudest against a certain behavior are likely the ones two steps from getting caught in an alleyway with their pants around their ankles. Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Rush Limbaugh, the list goes on and on. The Republicans have made an entirely un-natural pledge of non-sexuality to their party platform, and when any of the real men start to feel the natural hormones churning, they also find they've demegogued themselves out of any release for their sexual tensions. So they are forced to go "underground" to let off a few cc's of steam, even while deriding the rest of us for having the same natural needs for SEX. In true conservative style, they never learn...celibate priests turn to molesting, because they've been given NO RELEASE. Fat old conservative white guys find kinky sex in alleyways because they've grown up teaching us that women who do what they want are whores, or if they get a twinkle in their eye from a tight teenage boy-butt, it is all the homo-sek'shul's fault.

Not all those that fear homosexuals have repressed homosexual tendencies, to be sure. But watch for the ones that cry out the loudest. They're probably the ones with the HD full of gay beastiality kiddie porn on the office computer...the protests are smokescreens in an attempt to make the rest of us think they're just as "normal" as the rest of us. Ironically, if they'd just go with nature (within the law, of course), they WOULD be as normal as the rest of us!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

14. I don't disagree

I just know there are a lot of people who consider that "the law", and while it DOES happen, I don't think the majority of homophobes are homosexuals. That's all I mean to say. I do think there's a lot of merit to your argument though.

[trumad]

19. Hence Hookers being shipped in for the Republican Convention...

[baldguy]

20. fyi

University of Georgia researchers compared 35 men who exhibited homophobic traits with 29 men who do not. Both groups identified themselves as exclusively heterosexual.

...

They report that 24 percent of the nonhomophobic men, but 54 percent of the subjects who scored high on the homophobia scale showed some degree of tumescence in response to the homosexual video. In addition, 66 percent of the nonhomophobic group showed no significant increases in tumescence after this video, but only 20 percent of the homophobic men failed to display any arousal.

more from Psychiatric News, September 20, 1996:
http://www.psych.org/pnews/96-09-20/phobia.html

[trumad]

22. Oh fuckin A

That's hillarious... Case study for everything huh..LOL... Great find...

[Misunderestimator]

40. LMAO....

Sorry, but the word tumescence just cracks me up for some reason.

[trumad]

41. Ya know, when I first saw your pic in the gallery, I became Tumescence!

Tu`mes´cence
n. 1. The act of becoming tumid; the state of being swollen; intumescence; - applied especially to the state of swelling of the vascular tissue in the male and female sex organs when they have been stimulated to readiness for sexual intercourse.

[Misunderestimator]

43. Ok, now see.... back to that flirting thing... there IS a line

Trumadescence, indeed.

[trumad]

44. Yes.. and my wife just rolls her eyes when that happens

and then comes her phantom migrane.... ;-)

[kiahzero]

45. There's actually research to back it up

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_fuel2.htm

Scroll down a bit, and take a look at the table.

[jdonaldball]

15. I don't fear my heterosexuality

Heterosexuals, come out! There is nothing to be ashamed of! :-)

[Lerkfish]

17. It has nothing to do with sexuality, IMHO.

Just like pro-life has nothing to do with the life of the baby.

IMHO, its CONTROL. They want to CONTROL others to do what makes them more comfortable, regardless of where that puts the rights of other. They wish to extend their own "morality" like an envelope around everyone else and cause them to become under their CONTROL.

pro-lifers are misogynist. They want to CONTROL what a woman can do with her own reproduction process. But they don't feel the same need to control what a man does with his own reproduction process. They don't picket andrology labs. They agree with a man who froze his sperm having the legal right to determine whether it is used or not by an exwife. They don't track down fathers of pregnant women, they only harrass the women and their doctors.

Similarly, I think the anti-gay stance has more to do with their feeling of THREAT over their ability to CONTROL everyone else make them adopt their own religious/moral codes. This happens with the pledge of allegiance, etc.

ultimately, I think all these issues are smokescreens for the fact that they want a theocracy.

[trumad]

21. Not disagreeing with you there...

it's just another layer to their complicated souls...

[malatesta1137]

25. Freud said EVERYTHING we do

has to do with sexuality. And how right he was.

[Lerkfish]

26. perhaps...

but much of sexuality is about control: mastering another or releasing oneself to another.

[malatesta1137]

49. about control

but also about BEING controlled, it goes both ways. Everything we do, even if it has nothing to do with sex, has to do with our sexuality.

[malatesta1137]

23. great post!

you write "I think they fear their inner selves and it scares the shit out them that what they long for will come bubbling to the top."

OR TO THE BOTTOM (lol, you should have given them the option.)

I am gay and have a gay brother (and two straight brothers), except that the gay brother's a homophone and married to a woman. I feel sorry for him and her. At 31, he's still making cruel jokes and smart-ass (envious) comments about gay couples. I love him, but also pray for him.

[arwalden]

27. But What If A Guy Flirted With You Or Propositioned You?

Surely THAT would make you insecure... right? Wouldn't you want to BEAT THE SHIT out of him? Or try to SAVE him by introducing him to Jesus?

At the very least... wouldn't you want to make ugly comments and rude "fuck you" gestures?

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU??? Such security just isn't NORMAL!!! :hi:

-- Allen

[trumad]

28. Nah..just this...

[arwalden]

31. Too Funny!!

[Beetwasher]

32. Personally

I'm flattered if gay guys come on to me. Everyone knows gays have the best taste! :evilgrin:

[arwalden]

34. Psssst!

(Here's my business card... call me.)

[Beetwasher]

36. LOL!

Allen, If I were to ever switch hit, you'd be the one!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

35. I know Trumad, he's a tease

He'd give you a mad passionate kiss on the mouth and then leave you there with a woody to contemplate :evilgrin:

[arwalden]

38. I Can Live With That

Kisses are good.

[trumad]

42. Nah..I go bottom up.... Why waist time...?

[Beetwasher]

30. ZAP!

You're gay!

Yeah, the hate they have only makes sense if it's due to self hate and repression of latent homosexuality...

[arwalden]

39. Could THIS Explain Why I HATED Fags When I Was In High School?

Perhaps this is the reason that I would torment and tease the school-homo. After all... if I was a "ringleader" or a vocal-follower of other cruel ringleaders... then NOBODY would EVER suspect that I secretly had gay feelings and desires and fantasies.

Right?

-- Allen

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. I think that some of the homophobia comes from

the way boys are raised in this culture--because if you think about it, there are a lot more homophobic men than homophobic women.

You hear men go ballistic about how much they "hate fags," but I can't recall ever hearing a woman display the same kind of intensity about hating lesbians. They may express mild disapproval if they're prudish, but they don't rant or go around in gangs looking for lesbians to beat up. (This doesn't mean that they won't use the more feminine forms of cruelty, such as veiled sarcasm or social ostracism, but from what I've observed, female reaction to lesbians is more like the reaction to someone who wears out-of-style clothes than anything else.)

In this culture, gay men are perceived as feminine, and despite feminism, a lot of adult men still give boys the idea that having feminine traits is bad. "What are you, a bunch of GIRLS?" yells the coach when the team isn't playing aggressively enough.

Envision two scenarios with Mr. and Mrs. Typical Middle American.

1) Their daughter wants to play basketball in the winter and softball in the summer. They do everything they can to support and encourage her. Nobody worries about whether this will "turn her into a lesbian."

2) Their son wants to take ballet and gymnastics. The parents are horrified and worry that he will "turn out gay." They make him go out for football, even though ballet and gymnastics require a lot of athletic ability.

I think it's a miracle if a straight American male does NOT grow up homophobic.

[Misunderestimator]

47. You don't mention male bashing of lesbians...

Being a lesbian isn't all fun and games, and I've been threatened and publically insulted by men on many an occasion. A couple of years ago I was told by someone I was working with, that her manager had described me as a "Big Man-Hating Bull Dyke" (not big, bull or man-hating here). And many, many times (when people figure out I'm gay because I'm holding a woman's hand or leaving a gay establishment) I've been called a dyke and been subjected to over-the-top sexual come-ons... by strangers on the street (and yeah... they have ALL been men, so you do make a good point there).

I also know a woman who had all of her teeth knocked out by some guy as she was leaving a gay bar. She's had to wear dentures since she was barely 20.

I understand where you're coming from in your post, but it almost makes it seem that gay-bashing is all about bashing gay men.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

48. Sorry, I should have mentioned that

A few years ago in Oregon, a lesbian couple was murdered by some guy who had issues.

I'm straight, but I've been called "dyke" my freeperish types when I've turned down their advances or objected to their piggery.

I think the idea of women who meet their needs for love and sex without men is tremendously threatening to the macho types. After all, wouldn't any REAL woman want their lordly hunky selves? So they have to put down any woman who rejects them, for whatever reason.