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Do Homophobic Men Harbor Secret Homosexual Desires?Allan N. Schwartz, LCSW, Ph.D. Updated: Feb 4th 2009 Jesse Bering has written a thought provoking article for the magazine, January 30, 2009 issue of the magazine, Scientific American Mind. In it he cites two pieces of empirical research that support the notion of homophobic young men harbor secret homosexual impulses. Both research studies were published in the distinguished publication, Journal of Abnormal Psychology. The first study was done in 1006 by Henry Adams and his team at the University of Georgia. Complete descriptions of the works can be found on Scientific American Mind but you may have to pay for the article or buy the magazine. Here is the URL:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=single-angry-straight-male
One of the most significant things about the research that Bering discusses in his article is that these young homophobic men admit to violent feelings against homosexuals and admit that they would want to act out that violence if they saw two men in public being affectionate towards one another.
It would seem that the findings lend support to the Freudian defense mechanism called "reaction-formation," in which anxiety-producing or unacceptable emotions and impulses are mastered by exaggeration of the directly opposing tendency. In other words, the homopobic young man who has violent urges is really hiding strong homosexual feelings and impulses that cause him so much anxiety that he must cover them up by acting violently. Most probably these young men are unaware of their homosexual wishes. As with so much hatred, there is the tendency to hate in others that which we find unacceptable in ourselves. This is the basis of "scapegoating" in which a victim is selected and bullied because they exhibit some characteristic that the bully does not like because he perceives in himself. The importance of the findings in this research is not to imply that homophobic men are truly homosexual but that all human beings experiences varieties and types of feelings and impulses but that these do not define who they are. As Freud pointed out so long ago, human beings are "polymorphous perverse," which has to do with having all types of sexual feelings. The homophobe finds these feelings so terrifying that he must lash out at others who truly are gay. Rather, the homophobe, and all intolerant people, must come to terms with the fact that we live in a world of diversity. There is no real threat in that diversity and, instead, it makes the human race stronger. Your comments are encouraged. Allan N. Schwartz, PhD And, by analogy ... - Alessandro Drudi - Nov 17th 2009
... all people supporting capital punishment are secret murderers. Thought-provoking, revolutionary theories are sometimes just silly.
Dr. Dombeck's Note: That might be the case if there wasn't actually scientifically derived data to support the idea that *some* homophobic men harbor secret or unconscious homosexual desires. Apart from the work that Dr. Schwartz cites, I know of at least one other earlier study published in 1995 (?) or thereabouts in the Journal of Abnormal Behavior which used measures of men's erections (involuntary arousal) when exposed to homosexually oriented sexually explicit images. The findings were correlated with a measure of homophobia and (as I recall) the finding was pretty clear that there was an direct relationship between arousal to the images and homophobia such that as degree of homophobia rose, so too did erection volume. This is not to say that all homophobes are secretly gay, but it does suggest that some are. And really, do we need research to understand this relationship? All a person needs to do to see that there is a relationship between being secretly gay and being homophobic in some cases (certainly not all) is to reference Larry "wide stance" Craig, or Ted Haggard, or Mark Foley, or (historically), Roy Cohn, etc. These are all men who have engaged in publically documented homosexually oriented behavior, who deny their homosexual interests, and who have publically persecuted homosexuals. A silly directed explanation - - Aug 16th 2009
I feel that this document has a very silly, biased and direct explanation to explain why some people don't like or can't except the gay community. For example, someone may have violent thoughts and tendencies to hurt people such as rapists (Just an example I'm not making a direct comparison.). Does this mean that unconciously they want to be a rapist! Interesting - - Jun 21st 2009
Id, have to say that being gay myself this dose explain alot. I know alot of males and i get along with alot of males but they always seem to be ... rude.. for most of the part i have had them ask me questions about being gay.. sexual related. I do feel that this theory may be true, but at the same time they might just be doing it because they fear it, or they are it and society has made them afraid, society is what effects all decisions. all homophobics homosexuals? - lew - Apr 7th 2009
I am homophobic. But I dont have the urge to attack gays. I just fear them because 1. I fear their looks(make ups, feminine actions and dresses) 2. and I have ocd(obsessive-compulsive disorder), http://www.ocfoundation.org/what-is-ocd.html (copy and paste,hyperlink is not allowed here) I unreasonably fear everything I perceive negative. Such as becoming unmarried,becoming ugly,break-up in relationship, being murdered,get electrified,becoming mentally retarded, becoming gay,etc. I fear all these "negative" people or events or people associated with these events. Being able to see them or to be with them generates much anxieties. Nobody is sure about my unconsciuos mind, if I am gay. But all i know is that I love women(always have) and I dont have sexual or emotional urge to men(never have), with all my consciounes I am a man, not gay. Any comments? violence and homophobia - madame_zora - Mar 9th 2009
First, please correct the date of the study to 2006, not 1006, haha. Okay, I am currently embroiled in a debate about this very thing. The original study done in Georgia in 1996 suggested that the hostility factor should be studied further as a possible explanation of arousal among homohobes. To your knowledge has this been done? Secondly, I find it likley that homophobes are such for a variety of reasons- self-recrimnation being one of them. That being said, I literally cringe when supposedly scientific data attempts to assert that this is THE reason men are homophobic, and not just one reason. Other reasons might be religious indoctrination, familial attitudes, regional predominant views, level of education, comprehension ability or IQ, and perhaps others. If we buy into Kinsey's data (and I do), sexuality encompasses a range, not just either/or. Like so many other things, I think the answers are more likely to be a combination of biology and environment, for homosexuality as well as homophobia. We're all gay? - Ha Ha - Mar 7th 2009
Speak for yourself. Thats something only a faggot would say. Editor's Note: This is a hateful comment this anonymous person has left. Where does this hate come from? What motivates it? A lot of this hate is taught culturally, but there is actual psychophysical evidence that supports the idea that something akin to a freudian "reaction formation" occurs for some men - and these would be the men who are most virulently homophobic - not just the men who find the idea of sex with another man distasteful. These most homophobic men showed arousal and errections in response to homosexulal porn in the study I'm thinking of, whereas the men who were less hateful and also identified as heterosexual did not. One can argue about the definition of homosexuality and who qualifies, but to my mind, there does appears to be a loose group of men who cannot tolerate the fact that they are aroused by other men, and attack that tendency in themselves and in others. If you have a better explaination for the behavior of Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Roy Cohn (the archetypal gay man driven to persecute other gay men), and so many other prominant and publically anti-gay figures who apparently like to have sex with other men, I'd like to know it.
We are all (at least) a little gay - - Mar 7th 2009
You finally got around to the obvious conclusion - our sexual attractions are complicated, varied, and definitely not unipolar. Sadly, it is our society that demands that our sexual attractions be narrow and defined. I like to consider antiquity on this issue. Do we assume the Greeks and Romans were just a whole lot gayer than we are today? Only in action, only in action. Hm. half and half - Chloe - Feb 13th 2009
I think that Fruedian theories, even those such as this with seeming validity, much be considered carefully, due to the lack of representative samples in his research. I believe that this theory does have validity but I also think that there has to be some more valid support for this theory. Thanks! :) | 
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Readers in the Boulder, Colorado metro area (or Denver area people willing to drive) may contact Dr. Schwartz for face-to-face consultation and psychotherapy. Email him at dransphd@aol.com for details.