I have always hated this expression. I hate it because, to me, it sounds like we’re still using the word “gay” to mean “not ok”. But in this instance, I may have to concede the point.

Because homophobia is apparently, quite literally gay.

I know this files under “how the hell do they still get funding for this?”.

When I was 7 years old, a girl in grade 3 (a whole year older than me!) called me “freckle face”. I know this must have been in the summer because I only get my small smattering of freckles across my nose and cheeks when it’s sunny. She, on the other hand, was covered in permanent, sun-independent freckles.

It hurt, and I didn’t understand it. I asked my mother why she would call me that. My mom told me that we usually hate in others what we hate about ourselves. So if that girl really hated her freckles, she’d lash out at me and my freckles because it’s harder to lash out at yourself.

And it’s true. I’ve avoided people my whole life who’ve reminded me of the worst of me. It’s not a good thing, but it’s a thing, and it’s pretty normal, as far as I can tell.

And the gay community has always known that homophobia is often a domestic, rather than foreign, issue. How do we know? Well, the gay community is well known for keeping its secrets, but that doesn’t mean the community doesn’t learn from the knowledge it keeps from the world.

If a well known homophobe is actually gay, there are gay people who know (if the homophobe is getting laid, anyway). There have always been gay people who knew. Think about it: if homophobes are often gay, many of us out gays were one homophobes. I know a friend from school who was mercilessly bullied by another. These days, they are both out and gay. One was bullied for appearing gay (he wasn’t out)  in school, the other was a homophobic bully.

So we have a series of new studies on the matter, and a history full of old studies on the matter. The results always seem pretty conclusive. The tests (always done on men, as far as I can tell) show obviously increased levels of arousal in homophobic men when exposed to gay sex, an arousal not experienced by the non-homophobic controls and not experienced by the homophobic men in response to straight sex or lesbian sex.

Men in both groups were aroused by about the same degree by the video depicting heterosexual sexual behavior and by the video showing two women engaged in sexual behavior. The only significant difference in degree of arousal between the two groups occurred when they viewed the video depicting male homosexual sex: ‘The homophobic men showed a significant increase in penile circumference to the male homosexual video, but the control [nonhomophobic] men did not.’

Broken down further, the measurements showed that while 66% of the nonhomophobic group showed no significant tumescence while watching the male homosexual video, only 20% of the homophobic men showed little or no evidence of arousal. Similarly, while 24% of the nonhomophobic men showed definite tumescence while watching the homosexual video, 54% of the homophobic men did.
From an August 1996 study, published by the American Psychological Association

The other explanation offered from time to time is that anxiety can increase apparent arousal, and that could be contributing to the results.

What do you think?