Sexuality and Homophobia
“Come on, let’s go play house!” I heard this statement so many times as a child. The only thing is, I grew up in a neighbor that was mainly girls at the time, so when we would play “house”, pretending to have our own family consisting of a mother, father (although there usually wasn’t a male around), and a child; it got really awkward. Most of us grew out of it and promised to never speak of that phase again. However, some of us grew up and became extremely cautious around anyone who chose an alternative lifestyle. Looking back now, I wonder what sparked this seemingly intense hatred for the LGTBQ community. As a child, it was fine. However, now that we have grown to know what it was considered morally right and wrong, …show more content…
They find themselves disgusted by the idea and act of homosexual acts; these insane radicals are also known as homophobic people. Recent research shows that many who would be chosen as homophobic have more homosexual tendencies than those who sincerely are unaffected by other people’s sexuality. According to a New York Times article written on homophobia, one theory is that homosexual urges, when repressed out of shame or fear, can be expressed as homophobia. Freud famously called this process a “reaction formation” — the angry battle against the outward symbol of feelings that are inwardly being stifled (W. Ryan, R. Ryan). I had peers who I knew had been with same sex, but they chose to display homophobic tendencies in public. Bullying would take place when really they were the ones that would have sexual attraction towards the same sex. I even had those that were homophobic and even though I had no real evidence of them acting with the same sex sexually, it was still not understood from where their dislike stemmed. Growing up in a small town as I did, homophobia was not uncommon. A lot of the homophobic standards stemmed from religious reasoning or just the “southern laws” of what was right and expected of each “southern child.” Nonetheless, even from those small towns you find that one child who didn’t care to think about the rules and who didn’t care about your sexual preference. I was that child. Homosexual, bisexual, and even heterosexual were all words that were unnecessary in my vocabulary. This is why I chose to think that those who were homophobic, just as research shows, were also slightly inclined to have homosexual
“Come on, let’s go play house!” I heard this statement so many times as a child. The only thing is, I grew up in a neighbor that was mainly girls at the time, so when we would play “house”, pretending to have our own family consisting of a mother, father (although there usually wasn’t a male around), and a child; it got really awkward. Most of us grew out of it and promised to never speak of that phase again. However, some of us grew up and became extremely cautious around anyone who chose an alternative lifestyle. Looking back now, I wonder what sparked this seemingly intense hatred for the LGTBQ community. As a child, it was fine. However, now that we have grown to know what it was considered morally right and wrong, …show more content…
They find themselves disgusted by the idea and act of homosexual acts; these insane radicals are also known as homophobic people. Recent research shows that many who would be chosen as homophobic have more homosexual tendencies than those who sincerely are unaffected by other people’s sexuality. According to a New York Times article written on homophobia, one theory is that homosexual urges, when repressed out of shame or fear, can be expressed as homophobia. Freud famously called this process a “reaction formation” — the angry battle against the outward symbol of feelings that are inwardly being stifled (W. Ryan, R. Ryan). I had peers who I knew had been with same sex, but they chose to display homophobic tendencies in public. Bullying would take place when really they were the ones that would have sexual attraction towards the same sex. I even had those that were homophobic and even though I had no real evidence of them acting with the same sex sexually, it was still not understood from where their dislike stemmed. Growing up in a small town as I did, homophobia was not uncommon. A lot of the homophobic standards stemmed from religious reasoning or just the “southern laws” of what was right and expected of each “southern child.” Nonetheless, even from those small towns you find that one child who didn’t care to think about the rules and who didn’t care about your sexual preference. I was that child. Homosexual, bisexual, and even heterosexual were all words that were unnecessary in my vocabulary. This is why I chose to think that those who were homophobic, just as research shows, were also slightly inclined to have homosexual