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I only conclude repression when there’s a basis for it. There are plenty of people who are bad on their own merits. But when you hear someone describe homosexuality as a temptation that takes effort to resist, or one who thinks everyone would be gay but for their religion or something, the conclusion is reasonable.
Some people are transphobes because they’re just genuinely bad people. But then you hear a transphobe justify their hatred out of a fear that they could be tricked into transitioning, no bro its repression. Most people are happy with their gender, take the hormones.
Most people are genuinely disinterested in those they are not attracted to and secure in their own gender. If they show you that not being the case, it being due to repression is not an unreasonable thing to conclude.
I don’t think the common thread is that they are “secretly gay”.
But I do believe one of the most common threads is self-loathing/self-hatred and emotional repression, which they then over compensate for by forcing draconian policy on others who are more comfortable with themselves.
Drug use, infidelity, the need to justify a lifetime of privilege, over valuing the 1950’s propagandized ‘traditional American family’, an uncountable list of problems with women, and yes, even repressed sexuality, are just some of the many root causes of their self-hatred.
I agree with your point that many people reveal latent homophobia, or at the very least a willingness to use it to disparage others, when discussing closeted LGBTQ Republican’s. And that doing so is just frankly fucked up. But I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water here. Much of their awful policies are because they are secretly something.
I agree with your assessment, a lot of them are definitely slimy bottom dwellers. I don’t want people to stop calling that out at all, it’s the equation of sleazeball with skeletons in the closet and gay that people should knock off.
Liberal types love to weaponise homosexuality and pretend conservatives right wingers are secretly all repressed gay people.
Sure maybe one or two prominent examples might be, but the overwhelming majority are just hateful shits.
The most annoying thing is the tired line of “I’m not being homophobic only pointing out hypocrisy.”
It of course manages to absolve them of any of accusations that they might be homophobic. They aren’t gay, and it’s only self-hating gays that are homophobic after all.
I haven’t seen anyone blame their stupid position because of their secret homosexuality. I have however seen people call out their hypocrisy in being gay while being a part of the anti-gay party.
I will say that I don’t understand their repeated assertions that sexuality is a choice. I don’t see how anyone could believe that unless they’re actively repressing something.
But I don’t know where that disconnect lies. Is it just a bad faith argument, and they don’t really believe that? Do we have a fundamentally different understanding of what sexuality and sexual orientation consist of?
Edit: spelling
Yea, straight cis guy here. I once got kissed by a dude after I actively flirted with him for like 3 hours at a party once. Honestly, 10/10 best kiss of my life, objectively, but that’s how I learned I was definitely straight. Sexualuty very much isn’t a choice.
I know it’s trite to point out republican hypocrisy but anyone else notice how they insist women must be modest because men can’t control themselves while also believing sexuality is a choice?
Well, is it an impulse or a choice then??
To be fair, you cant logically explain a position that someone came to have for baseless illogical reasons. They dont have to have a logical repression based reason for believing being gay is a choice if they believe being gay is a choice due to illogical sky daddy issues
https://tes.lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/lemmy.blahaj.zone/45532986
Feel free to peruse the comments here that go on about how they just want men with high T because they find them so sexy.
any alternative theory?
Theory for what, why they’re shitty people? Do I need to explain to you that straight people can be shitty?
E: Jesus Christ, do you mean the testosterone thing?? Are you going to sit here and tell me you think every straight man with testosterone anxieties is secretly gay?
yeah like, what is the underlying idea? because there has to be a reason the man just told the entire world he thinks the military isn’t manly enough. from a neutral perspective it’s just an incredible own goal, so there has to be some rationale other than he wants soldiers to be bald and hairy.
Right wing straight men have a lot of anxiety over sperm count and testosterone levels dropping since the 60s, and their solution is a bandaid (more testosterone) instead of looking at the cause (likely pollution and worse physical health). These values are based in heterosexist beliefs about testosterone and masculinity.
right, that’s the obvious reason, but announcing it directly was obviously going to be a pr disaster. so what made it worth doing?
I know what someone who wants dick but can’t admit it to themselves acts like. I used to be one.
And I’m looking at Pete Hegseth and Jesse Watters right now.
I know a straight guy who is on gender-affirming TRT, when I asked him what it was like, he talked about how he found all kinds of women more attractive, how he would see any bit of jiggle and it would turn him on.
My friend’s fascination was withwomen’s bodies, not men’s bodies, that’s what he found himself thinking about.
The way Hegseth talks about Manly Fit Men makes it clear where his interests lie.
It’s not that hard.
You are quite literally projecting. Your own personal experience and struggles with internalized homophobia doesn’t excuse using homophobia as a political weapon.
I don’t think the person you’re responding to believes that the problem is politicians being gay, but that they can’t separate their feelings about their sexuality from their job as politicians. Just because this fact can be used by homophobes to demonize gay people doesn’t mean that Republicans in office don’t have a pattern of sexual self repression that colors their politics.
You’re talking about confirmation bias, not an actual rule about the composition of the Republican Party or Republican lawmakers as a whole. Every time a Republican is outed it sticks in your mind because of the hypocrisy, but you don’t notice or remember the ~95% of them that are straight and never get ‘caught’ because they aren’t attracted to men. Turning around and using the closeted minority to insinuate that, actually, any given Republican is gay and closeted is just homophobia.
How am I using homophobia as a political weapon? What the fuck?
Did you think Lindsay Graham was straight?
Did you miss that the thread I linked is not about Lindsay Graham and is in fact about Pete Hegseth? Did you black out on the part where you talked about how Hegseth was obviously gay because of the fixation on men having high testosterone? Blaming sexist policies on people you think are closeted is homophobia, I don’t care how much you think you see yourself in him.
Being secretly homosexual is irrelevant to their behaviour.
It has everything to do with them being oppressed into thinking it is evil and unnatural by religion.
Why do they look like Jeff Dunham puppets to me? The one on the right especially looks like Junior.
