Homophobia May Be Linked to Repressed Homosexuality, Studies Say

We've always suspected it, but now there might be scientific findings to back it up: Violent homophobes might be concealing their own same-sex feelings.

In a study which will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a team of researchers tested about 160 college students to determine if they had repressed homosexual desires. Often, an overtly homophobic student demonstrated signs of same-sex attraction (e.g. a positive reaction to a same-sex-oriented photo, or a hesitancy before identifying as heterosexual.) Moreover, the study found that many of those students with repressed feelings had grown up in authoritative households. To illustrate their fndings, the study name-dropped such public figures as Ted Haggard, an overtly anti-gay evangelical who was exposed in a 2006 gay sex scandal.

Click over to Science Daily for a full description of the study.