Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Study: Homophobes May Be Gay Themselves
Rick Santorum, I'm looking at you.
Denial can be a powerful defense mechanism. Apparently, homophobia is too ? at least according to a new study from researchers from the University of Rochester, the University of Essex, England, and the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Their research concluded that the intense fear and repulsion college-age homophobes feel toward gays and lesbians is likely due to the fact that they see similarities in themselves.
?Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves,? said lead author Netta Weinstein of the University of Essex, according to Science Daily.
The research, due to be published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, took place in four different places in the United States and Germany, with an average of 160 college students in each location.
The researchers tested their subjects on their own sexuality and then measured the discrepancy between what the participants said about their own sexual orientation and how they reacted to timed tasks, including associating themselves with words and images they deemed as ?gay? or ?straight.?
Quickly associating himself or herself with a ?gay? image and slowly associating with a ?straight? one implied that an individual was gay.
The study also examined the participants? upbringing and their own levels of so-called ?homophobia.?
Those with discrepancies in how they defined their sexuality and how their sexuality was actually manifest in the study were more likely to be hostile to gays.
?In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,? said co-author Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester.
The study also found that people who grew up in supportive households were more likely to be in touch with their own sexual orientations.
?In a predominantly heterosexual society, ?know thyself? can be a challenge for many gay individuals. But in controlling and homophobic homes, embracing a minority sexual orientation can be terrifying,? Weinstein added.
Re: Study: Homophobes May Be Gay Themselves
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
I know right?
Don't these researchers watch Glee?
You can be 100% gay and still insist it's a "choice" because you are choosing to fight your natural instinct and maintain a heterosexual relationship, no matter how conflicted or miserable it renders you.
Yes,I'm smiling...I'm a marathoner!
Bloggy McBloggerson
CO Nestie Award Winner-Prettiest Brain-Back to Back!
2011 Bests
5K-22:49 10K-47:38 Half Mary-1:51:50
2012 Race Report
1/1-New Year's 5K-22:11
2/11-Sweetheart Classic 4-mile-29:49
3/24-Coulee Chase 5K-21:40
5/6-Colorado Marathon-4:08:30
5/28-Bolder Boulder 10K
I doubt it. If you were a 100% gay man how could you have sex with a woman? Performance wise, that is.
Using percentages here to describe the continuum of sexuality from utterly hetero to utterly homo and all the variations in between.
first of all, I dont believe most people ARE 100% gay or 100% straight. I think most people are in that area of grey. Not just bisexuals.
Second, I am a heterosexual and I am not really attracted to girls, but I think I would be open to having sex with another woman if I were single. It doesn't repulse me, just not my thing.
My first thought, too.
Close your eyes and pretend it's a dude.
Friction is friction, yo.
Do you watch porn?
No seriously. Do you?
For him, he believed in god's love so much he was able to force himself to marry and have sex with a woman for 12 years. He saw many signs from god to punish him if his thoughts strayed to fantasize about men. It was hell for him, but he was so Christ-y, that he worked at it b/c his salvation was at stake.
It was only when they were trying to have a child that his deep depression about it made him realize that he couldn't live that way the rest of his life, and a child would be the end of his unspoken dream that he'd ever get out of the marriage. He still wants a child, but not with a woman.
I didn't ask about his performance, but I imagine it's still possible with that level of cognitive dissonance and strong motivation. Just like thinking of England.
Those pics are hilarious, toledo.
Add me to the list of nosh!tsherlock fans. Although I could also see where if someone was molested as a child, that may shape their viewpoints and have nothing to do with their sexuality.
/dying
Significant Other just said he's sure Santorum is NOT a closet homosexual.
Because if he really WAS gay, he's know how unflattering that sweater vest is.
Wrong. From my experience, middle-aged Midwestern gay men dress just as badly as middle-aged Midwestern straight men.
He's not Midwestern, though. He was born in Virginia, served in the Senate representing Pennsylvania.