Scientists have found a link between homophobia and sexual orientation
People who actively oppose representatives of “sexual minorities” often turn out to be hidden gays and lesbians themselves, and such cases cannot simply be called “rare”.
Scientists managed to find reasons for the connection between sexual orientation and people’s attitude towards homosexuals.
A group of researchers from the universities of New York, the University of California, USA and the University of Essex, UK have proven that people who more often than others show intolerance towards those of a different sexual orientation are actually used to suppressing their true sexual preferences, because of the way they were brought up.
In this way, people who feel sexually attracted to members of their own sex try to mask this feeling by using aggression.
The hostile behavior of homophobes is related to the peculiarities of the upbringing they received from their parents, and in most cases it was imposed with cruelty.
According to psychologists, the hatred towards people of different sexual orientation in some of the homophobes intensifies when they begin to realize their similarity to homosexuals.
The very confession to oneself gives rise to fear based on the inadmissibility of free sexual behavior.
The authors of the study believe that anti-gay behavior is a problem for people raised in families where homosexuality is considered illegal.
The scientists made their findings based on several experiments with the participation of students from the USA and Germany. In the course of the study, the specialists compared the volunteers’ answers to questions about sexual orientation with their reaction to images and words of an intimate nature.
Teacher from the University of Essex, Great Britain, Neta Weinstein, who took an active part in the surveys conducted by the scientists, notes that the cold, who considered themselves 100% heterosexual, according to the results of psychological tests, felt a very strong attraction to people of their sex.
Psychologists suggest that the main mistake of parents in the upbringing of their children consists in the formation of habits to suppress real sexual needs.
In the future, a person brought up in a family where his sexuality is suppressed will almost certainly face a serious mental conflict and will not have the skills to resolve it.
Gradually, this internal contradiction begins to affect a person’s lifestyle and mental health.
Sometimes the consequences of parents’ strict attitude towards different sexual orientation can manifest as open aggression against homosexuals and denial of one’s own needs.
Strictly speaking, the etiology of the word “homophobia” is based on the word “phobia”, that is, fear, and literally means fear of homosexuality.
In public consciousness, the claim that homophobia is one or another form of aggression towards homosexuals has been accepted. But this is not quite so.
Homophobia often appears to outside observers as hatred directed at homosexuals, homosexual culture, but the reason for this hatred is the fear that the homophobe’s own sexuality in its true form has, so to speak, a homosexual color.
One of the misconceptions that has now found scientific confirmation is that homophobes are actually homosexuals in disguise.
Supporters of this claim, among whom there are now scientists, suggest that homophobes abandon their aggression and take advantage of their sexual preferences.
According to some psychologists, in homophobia, the source of fear of homosexuality lies in the extreme attitude of the parents of the homophobe towards homosexuals.
