By RICHARD M. RYAN and WILLIAM S. RYAN
Published: April 27, 2012
In recent years, Ted Haggard, an evangelical leader who preached that
homosexuality was a sin, resigned after a scandal involving a former
male prostitute; Larry Craig, a United States senator who opposed
including sexual orientation in hate-crime legislation, was arrested on
suspicion of lewd conduct in a men’s bathroom; and Glenn Murphy Jr., a
leader of the Young Republican National Convention and an opponent of
same-sex marriage, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after being accused
of sexually assaulting another man.
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. Even Mr. Haggard seemed to
endorse this idea when, apologizing after his scandal for his anti-gay
rhetoric, he said, “I think I was partially so vehement because of my
own war.”
It’s a compelling theory — and now there is scientific reason to believe
it. In this month’s issue of the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, we and our fellow researchers provide empirical evidence that homophobia can result, at least in part, from the suppression of same-sex desire. READ MORE
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