I think that the main reason is that Christians so often don't believe that God would have created gays. To them it seems like admitting that their assumed-perfect being makes mistakes.

So they often believe that gay people are deceived about their own sexuality and are therefore afraid gays will spread that deception to others.

(April 4, 2025 at 11:52 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(April 4, 2025 at 10:01 pm)Paleophyte Wrote: Fragility and raging white male homophobia.


Absolutely. Frightened white men are much less worried about catching the gay from lesbians.

I'm not sure why you've mentioned "white" twice. Here in America, homophobia is more prevalent amongst blacks, I think. Latinos as well, but I'm not as sure. But both minorities, being more religious than whites in general, seem to have absorbed the homophobia of the various Christian sects they adhere to.

I don't think there's a racial element to homophobia. I think some men of all races look at male homosexuality as a threat because there's a fear of emasculation. Homophobic males, I believe, are imbued with a male image -- whether by culture, religion, or what-have-you -- that doesn't tolerate submission or even its appearance. I don't think "white" is a big factor there. Homophobia is prevalent in Africa and Asia as well.

I could well be wrong about my reasoning, but I'm pretty sure I'm right that homophobia is not about white males specifically. There's not many white males in Saudi Arabia; there's also not many out gays in that patriarchal society.

Much of the cultural/religious stance currently present in Africa and Latin America can be traced back to western/white roots. What little we know about the cultures that existed prior to colonialism suggests that they were far more tolerant, on average. There's less contamination throughout Asia, so I'll grant you that. I was speaking about North America though and our culture is pretty contaminated by white male puritanism.

(April 5, 2025 at 11:39 pm)Paleophyte Wrote: Much of the cultural/religious stance currently present in Africa and Latin America can be traced back to western/white roots. What little we know about the cultures that existed prior to colonialism suggests that they were far more tolerant, on average. There's less contamination throughout Asia, so I'll grant you that. I was speaking about North America though and our culture is pretty contaminated by white male puritanism.

Yet black American are apparently more homophobic, by the numbers:

Quote:Results
The proportion of African Americans who indicated that homosexuality was “always wrong” was 72.3% in 2008, largely unchanged since the 1970s. In contrast, among white respondents, this figure declined from 70.8% in 1973 to 51.6% in 2008, with most change occurring since the early 1990s. Participants who knew a gay person were less likely to have negative attitudes toward homosexuality (RR=0.60, 95% CI: 0.52–0.69). Among MSM, twice as many African American MSM reported that homosexuality is “always wrong” compared to white MSM (57.1% vs. 26.8%, p=0.003). MSM with unfavorable attitudes toward homosexuality were less likely to report ever testing for HIV compared to MSM with more favorable attitudes (RR=0.50, 95% CI: 0.31–0.78).

Conclusions
U.S. attitudes toward homosexuality are characterized by persistent racial differences, which may help explain disparities in HIV infection rates between African American and white MSM.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2974805/

I suspect that goes to their religiosity.

Maybe. But it's hard to overlook cultural differences as well, having to do with ideas of masculinity, economic class, attitudes about crime and morals, and family norms.

(April 6, 2025 at 10:34 am)Angrboda Wrote: Maybe.  But it's hard to overlook cultural differences as well, having to do with ideas of masculinity, economic class, attitudes about crime and morals, and family norms.

All good points.

Christian are afraid of gay people because they are minority.

My recent guess, spurred on by my discovering John Wyndham's The Crysalids at about the same time as Trump's deciding to write the definitions of gender/sex into common law: the type of Christians who are so likely to be afraid of gay people are also likely to believe (at least on some level) in gender hierarchies. Naturally, same-sex couples kind of throw a wrench into this plan. And trans folk are even worse for it. So, these aberrations become offenses against God. And trans folk become a full-on blasphemy against him.

(April 11, 2025 at 5:24 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: My recent guess, spurred on by my discovering John Wyndham's The Crysalids at about the same time as Trump's deciding to write the definitions of gender/sex into common law: the type of Christians who are so likely to be afraid of gay people are also likely to believe (at least on some level) in gender hierarchies. Naturally, same-sex couples kind of throw a wrench into this plan. And trans folk are even worse for it. So, these aberrations become  offenses against God. And trans folk become a full-on blasphemy against him.

So they are seeing people with different sexual proclivities beyond heterosexual as an affront to god? Like their god his offended by them and therefore they have to "get em" for lack of a better term?

Also, you all have given me a lot to think about. Great posts thanks all.

(April 12, 2025 at 1:46 am)Goosebump Wrote:

(April 11, 2025 at 5:24 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: My recent guess, spurred on by my discovering John Wyndham's The Crysalids at about the same time as Trump's deciding to write the definitions of gender/sex into common law: the type of Christians who are so likely to be afraid of gay people are also likely to believe (at least on some level) in gender hierarchies. Naturally, same-sex couples kind of throw a wrench into this plan. And trans folk are even worse for it. So, these aberrations become  offenses against God. And trans folk become a full-on blasphemy against him.

So they are seeing people with different sexual proclivities beyond heterosexual as an affront to god? Like their god his offended by them and therefore they have to "get em" for lack of a better term?

That’s what I think is at the root of it all. Especially for trans folk.