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Re:Disproportionate amount of bad online behaviour stems fro... by krapp on Friday June 25, 2021 @05:37PM (#27636586)
I kind of disagree. To me, there does seem to be an element of fear behind homophobia, and homophobes often act as if "the gay" is something they can catch like a disease, or be talked or tricked into. It's practically a stereotype for homophobes to present as hypermasculine in order to avoid doing or saying anything that might be perceived as "gay." Some men won't even wipe themselves out of fear that the sensation of toilet paper on their buttocks will turn them gay.

And that's not even getting into political and culture fears like male-to-female transgender people "trapping" men into having sex with them, or using the "wrong" bathrooms, or the extreme right-wing fears of a "gay agenda" to undermine traditional Christian-oriented culture, or "feminizing chemicals" being added to the water (the whole "gay frogs" thing) to increase the homosexual population and emasculate male aggression and military readiness. People even argue that homosexuality presents a threat to human evolution itself, despite being present in many known (and not extinct) animal species and likely humanity's own evolutionary ancestors as well as humanity itself.

Re:Disproportionate amount of bad online behaviour stems fro... by mcguire on Friday June 25, 2021 @06:28PM (#27637045)
""feminizing chemicals" being added to the water (the whole "gay frogs" thing) to increase the homosexual population and emasculate male aggression and military readiness..."

Actually that part is kinda true. A fair bit of the effluent from paper mills, say, are estrogen analogs.

Re:Disproportionate amount of bad online behaviour stems fro... by faeriechangling on Friday June 25, 2021 @07:43PM (#27637592)
It's disgust not fear, which explains the disease analogy. Although I suppose we do call people germophobic.
Re:Disproportionate amount of bad online behaviour stems fro... by Tainnor on Friday June 25, 2021 @09:25PM (#27638181)
I think it's often specifically the fear that condoning homosexuality will somehow undermine your masculinity (or that of your nation or whatever).