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[–]jim_steak 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

People who grow up in religious households are forced from a young age to obey a confusing, contradictory set of rules that forces them over and over to do things they don't want to do, but that they have to do to get love and support from their parents and community. For example, women who are forced to see themselves as sexualized and subservient beings to men, or young boys who go through the trauma of unnecessary circumcision. They are unable to articulate their anger and fear about these aspects of their life to the people who are supposed to support them, because those are the same people who are harming them. The very act of questioning these teachings is sinful and wrong - so instead they push their anger and fear into their unconscious. Gay people are one of many safe outlets for these buried feelings, which is why homophobic sentiment is so irrational: it's actually the buried feelings of rage these people hold against their parents. Homophobic peoples' fear of gay people is their own displaced fear of the trauma that was done to them, which is why so many homophobic arguments (indoctrination of children, child molestation, forcing beliefs onto others) are things that religious institutions are actually doing every day.