"Most Homophobes are secretly gay.

[leftieNanner]

However, most arachnophobes are not secretly spiders."

Tweet I spotted on Daily Kos this morning.

Love it!

[SidDithers]

1. Most homophobes are openly bigots...

Good quote.

Sid

[unblock]

2. hmm, i suppose some portion of triskadecaphobes are actually 13.

[leftieNanner]

3. Perhaps,

but not secretly.

[unblock]

5. on the internet, on can never be too sure....

[displacedtexan]

4. Most homophobes are a**holes, who either A.) want to feel...

... superior to someone else; or B.) want to get money from other a**holes who want to feel superior to someone else.

BTW, both types are too stupid to know that they'll never be "superior" to anyone.

[Matariki]

6. ...

[dilby]

7. I hate this statement.

Reason being is it implies most people who hate gays are gays thus there is something wrong with the gay community.

[joeybee12]

9. I agree...but I think the comeback about spiders is that

person's way of showing that the initial statement makes no sense.

[closeupready]

11. I disagree. The implication, to me, is that there is something wrong with society.

A society that condemns some segment of humanity is going to give birth to lots of self-hating members of that segment. Ergo, when someone is obsessed with condemning purple people, that person is likely somehow very close to being purple.

[CJCRANE]

14. Many conservatives, whether gay or straight, are hypocrites.

This is the same whether it's adultery, accepting government benefits, abortion, teenage pregnancy, using porn etc.

They say one thing and do another.

[Jamaal510]

24. +1

I have come across plenty of people over the years who did and said homophobic stuff (including some people in my own family), who are straight. Plus, homophobia was even more commonplace just a few years ago and before then. It used to be the norm to be a homophobe. If most people who hate gays did happen to be gay themselves, then I seriously doubt that the world's population would be as large as it is now.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

26. Agreed.

It's a slur on the queer community to suggest that all these asses, or even many of them, are actually queer.

[CJCRANE]

8. Most conservatives are secretly human beings.

A lot of the things that conservatives rail against are things that they do, or want to do, themselves.

[closeupready]

10. Why are homophobes obsessed with gay people?

Gay people aren't obsessed with homophobes.

There's something to this meme, IMO - I'm in the minority on that view in the GLBT community, but whenever someone is out there bashing gay people, and a photo or video is posted, my gaydar pings strongly about 80% of the time.

[KamaAina]

12. Probably because, deep down, they're afraid they might be one.

And as we all know, that is the worst fate that could possibly befall a human being.

[closeupready]

15. Agree, either because they ARE gay, or else they have gay fantasies, like 95%

of people. Okay, I just made up that statistic, but I think most studies have shown that most people do have homosexual fantasies of some kind.

A similar example of this would be someone like Roy Cohn who helped Establishment characters in blackmailing closeted gay people for obedience even though Cohn himself was gay. He even died of AIDS, but claimed he was ill with something else.

[whopis01]

21. It is ok to make up statistics

studies show that 87% of statistics are made up.

[Behind the Aegis]

17. Some certainly are obsessed because of their own interalized homophobia.

However, most are not. They are simply bigots and hate/fear/despise gay people for a plethora of reasons, none of which have anything to do with a repressed or hidden sexual orientation or desires. IMO, too many people let homophobes off the hook by calling them gay; it is as if it is our problem and we need to address it, when it is, in fact, an issue within the non-gay community. Misogynists, by in large, have no desire to be women; though some do. Racists usually have no inkling of wanting to be Black/Asian/Latino, though some may certainly be jealous. Anti-Semites aren't making a run to be bar mitzvahed because they "secretly love the Jews." So, why is it homophobes are almost always and almost automatically assumed to be "secret gays?" One shitty little study, done almost 20 years ago, continues to poison the well.

Whereas gays may not be obsessed with homophobes, it stands to reason homophobes would be obsessed with gays, just as racists are obsessed with African-Americans (or other ethnic minorities), but it doesn't mean either secretly desire to be the object of their obsession/hate.

[closeupready]

18. Though I don't entirely agree, you've made some really good points here, BtA.

[LanternWaste]

13. Most arachnophobes don't attempt to establish legislation denying existence to arachnids.

Most arachnophobes don't attempt to establish legislation denying existence to arachnids.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Maybe They're Afraid Of Reprisal!

You know like laying spider eggs in the stomach and then everything goes all Alien one day.

Just kidding.

Not sure i buy the basic premise of the tweet, but it is a clever twist of logic.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

20. just like most racists are not secretly black. some are (or have been in the past)

, but most are just your run of the mill bigots

[DemocraticWing]

22. Homophobes are usually straight people who hate gays.

And straight people should clean up their own mess, instead of pretending that it's gay people's fault.

[leftieNanner]

23. It's also fear.

The homophobes have been taught that being gay is a "lifestyle choice" and a sin. Therefore, they act out against that fear in themselves. A good friend of mine's older brother was an uber conservative congressman who was pushing the constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality. He had something like a 98% approval rating from the Christian Coalition. He was outed by leaving a voice mail message trolling for a gay sexual encounter. I just thought it was such a sad thing for him to have lived his whole life in denial of who he was.

[eridani]

25. I think bi rather than gay. If you're bi, you can choose to engage only in opposite sex relations

That's something that they tend to project onto actual gay people, who really don't have that choice.