Gay Teen Worried He Might Be Christian

[Daniel]

An article from The Onion that made me smile.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news...ed_he_might_be

Funny!

[NathanATX]

lol... awesome

[Matt Algren]

Everybody experiments a little, okay?

[K-Dog]

Is this trying to imply that conservative christianity isn't a choice, but an inate makeup of who you are?

[NathanATX]

The Onion is a satirical magazine. It's all made up.

[K-Dog]

Originally Posted by NathanATX

The Onion is a satirical magazine. It's all made up.

I get it, I was being funny.

[NathanATX]

cool. One of my facebook friends didn't realize it...

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by NathanATX

cool. One of my facebook friends didn't realize it...

Satire - that is.

When you think about it, you realize that the language used is the same that is used by conservatives against gay people- it's a phase etc etc. Thing is, being gay isn't a belief, while matters of faith certainly are. This Onion article made me think about the difference between an immutable characteristic within a person- being gay - vs - having faith. They are two very different things.

[K-Dog]

When I was a child, I was easily duped into believing what I was told. My parents told me the preacher knew about God, and I believed them. The preacher told me God destroyed Sodom because of gay people, and I believed him. When I grew older, I started to be less gullible. I still didn't know the answers, but I knew what I had been told was untrue. It didn't make sense to me, in other words I guess.

The article shows me things that I haven't really thought about before. I haven't ever felt the urge to blow up an abortion clinic, but I like to blow stuff up in general. People are taught from a very young age that one thing is right and another is wrong, and it is very hard to turn away from that programming. From what I have been able to gather, even many gay people are homophobic because of how they were raised and what they were told to believe.

Homophobia does not seem to be caused by a fear of other gay people. It is more a fear of having gay feelings oneself. The person then projects those fears unfairly onto people who have had nothing to do with it. Although I didn't know what it really meant to be gay when I first came here, I knew who I am and that caused me to not suffer from homophobia.

I believe that most of the heterosexual christians who have been offensive on this site have meant well, but have not taken the time to learn what they are actually talking about. They're taught by their pastors and parents that gay people secretly know that being gay is wrong and want someone to lead them away from being gay. The problem is they go off half cocked believing that and end up with egg on their face because they talk at people and not to them.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by K-Dog

Homophobia does not seem to be caused by a fear of other gay people. It is more a fear of having gay feelings oneself. The person then projects those fears unfairly onto people who have had nothing to do with it.

Very well said K-dog.

Gay people can be mirrors for other people's feelings. And when people see something they don't like, they blame it on the mirror and get out their hammer.

A few years ago, there was a study (we've yakked about it here) involving men that showed that the most homophobic guys were aroused by images of gay sex. Now ain't that a kicker?

[Daniel]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_homosexuality

Originally Posted by wikipedia

A theory that homophobia is a result of latent homosexuality was put forth in the late 20th century. A 1996 study conducted at the University of Georgia by Henry Adams, Lester Wright Jr., and Bethany Lohr[1] indicates that a number of "homophobic" males exhibit latent homosexuality. The research was done on 64 heterosexual men, 35 of whom exhibited "homophobic" traits and 29 who did not. Three tests were conducted using penile plethysmography. While there was no difference in response when the men were exposed to heterosexual and lesbian pornography, there was a major difference in response when the men were exposed to male homosexual pornography.

The researchers reported that 24% of the non-"homophobic" men showed some degree of tumescence in response to the male homosexual video, compared to 54% of the subjects who scored high on the "homophobia scale". In addition, 66% of the nonhomophobic group showed no significant increases in tumescence after this video, but only 20% of the "homophobic" men failed to display any arousal. Additionally, when the participants rated their degree of sexual arousal later, the "homophobic" men significantly underestimated their degree of arousal by the male homosexual video.

Still, researchers disagree about whether the "homophobic" males were stimulated by genuine latent homosexuality or negative emotions such as anxiety.

One thing the study makes very clear: guys are visually oriented! Another is that homophobic guys are more likely to live in the state called denial.

[Matt Algren]

Originally Posted by K-Dog

When I was a child, I was easily duped into believing what I was told. My parents told me the preacher knew about God, and I believed them. The preacher told me God destroyed Sodom because of gay people, and I believed him. When I grew older, I started to be less gullible. I still didn't know the answers, but I knew what I had been told was untrue. It didn't make sense to me, in other words I guess.

The article shows me things that I haven't really thought about before. I haven't ever felt the urge to blow up an abortion clinic, but I like to blow stuff up in general. People are taught from a very young age that one thing is right and another is wrong, and it is very hard to turn away from that programming. From what I have been able to gather, even many gay people are homophobic because of how they were raised and what they were told to believe.

Homophobia does not seem to be caused by a fear of other gay people. It is more a fear of having gay feelings oneself. The person then projects those fears unfairly onto people who have had nothing to do with it. Although I didn't know what it really meant to be gay when I first came here, I knew who I am and that caused me to not suffer from homophobia.

I believe that most of the heterosexual christians who have been offensive on this site have meant well, but have not taken the time to learn what they are actually talking about. They're taught by their pastors and parents that gay people secretly know that being gay is wrong and want someone to lead them away from being gay. The problem is they go off half cocked believing that and end up with egg on their face because they talk at people and not to them.

Yep. Fear of sex, fear of feminine, fear of Other. It's a perfect storm.