How Self-Hatred Shaped Anti-LGBTQ Laws
There is a pattern in queer history so consistent it almost qualifies as a law of nature: the loudest voice calling for the persecution of LGBTQ people is sometimes coming from inside the house.
5 Questions to Reflect On
- 1. The psychology of reaction formation suggests that some people manage their own suppressed desires by loudly persecuting what they fear in themselves.
- 2. Roy Cohn, J. Edgar Hoover, and others wielded enormous institutional power while living closeted lives.
- 3. The debate around "outing" closeted anti-gay politicians divides many LGBTQ people.
- 4. The researchers who conducted the 1996 arousal study were careful about their conclusions -- but the study became culturally famous as "proof" that homophobes are secretly gay.
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