Ever think that extreme homophobic people could actually be gay? New studies have shown that gay people say they are homophobic in order to cover up the shame and fear that they have for their sexuality. Sigmund Freud called the process a "reaction formation." A reaction formation is a battle against the symbol of feelings that are being kept inside. Ted Haggard, an evangelical leader preached that homosexuality was a sin, but ironically resigned after a scandal with a male prostitute. He agrees with Freud in when he apologized about his scandal and his anti-gay act saying that he believes he did it because secretly he was fighting his own war against it. Scientists have been working on this research at the University of Rochester for the past 15 years. They said that evidence of homosexual urges is seen by subtle verbal cues. The researches started by asking college kids, most of who were women to rate their sexual orientation on a scale from 1 to 10. 10 being completely gay, 5 being bisexual and 1 being totally straight. They were also required to show how much they agreed with statements like " I would feel uncomfortable having a gay roommate." Or, "Gay people make me nervous." After they were put into different levels based onto their level of gayness and homophobia, they were shown pictures on a computer screen. Some of the pictures were, two women or two men and afterwards a subliminal cue came up onto the screen. On the screen, the words ME or OTHERS would pop up and ME would shorten a student's reaction time for gay imagery. This test is a sign of her homosexuality on a subconscious level. The idea of this research is that it takes people less time to make connections between words or images when the connections conform to prior beliefs.
Click here for more info about this article and the research they have conducted!
After reading this article, I have found myself to agree with Freud and the research that the University of Rochester has conducted. I find it very weird for people to have an actual fear of homosexuals, I believe that the main fear is becoming a homosexual yourself. I think it is understandable for someone who is straight to find themselves maybe uncomfortable at times when around homosexuals or maybe react differently to comments that a homosexual could make to a straight person, but that is different than calling yourself homophobic. People think that publicly announcing it and making it clear to people that you are "afraid of gays" will cover up the fact that they are actually gay, but it will not fool me. I found this to be very interesting and I am curious to see end results of the study!
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