Thursday, August 17, 2006

Scared Straights: Homophobia and Insecurity

I don't get straight guys who are homophobic. The guys who seemed so threatened by gays. The existence of straight people doesn't make me quake in my boots and I don't turn squeamish at the sight of an opposite-sex kiss. Some of my best friends are straight. Even my parents are straight! I feel very secure in my sexuality and the fact that the majority of the world thinks straight sex is "normal" doesn't make it normal for me.

But show most straight men the bloodiest, gore-iest scene from a movie and they sit stoically. Show them, say, the kiss between Tom Selleck and Kevin Kline from In and Out and they howl in horror and cover their eyes. When I came out to my father he spent the next several days making comments about women sexually -- thumping his chest in displays of hetero hubris. Somehow his queer son was a threat to his sexuality.

Yes, I suppose we hate what we don't know and fear. But I hate and am afraid of flying, but I don't go around beating up pilots.

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