In a new post for the blog Sex and Psychology, Dr. Justin Lehmiller delves into the reasons why so many conservative men continue to find themselves at the center of gay sex scandals.
The most one is GOP Rep. Nick Sauer of Illinois, who resigned in disgrace last week after being accused of using his ex-girlfriend’s nude photos to create a fake Instagram account in order to “catfish” other guys into having “graphic conversations of a sexual nature”.
Lehmiller is a Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute and author of the book Tell Me What You Want: The Science of Sexual Desire and How It Can Help You Improve Your Sex Life.
He says there could be several reasons why someone with same-sex attraction might lobby for anti-gay causes. The most obvious one: Religion.
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“For these individuals, perhaps their religious identity is more central to their sense of self than their sexual identity (at least most of the time),” Lehmiller writes.
This would certainly explain the steady stream of priests, pastors, and rabbis constantly being busted grooming teens for sex or maintaining secret Grindr profiles.
Related: Religious leader caught grooming teen for sex on Grindr says it was maybe “a little illegal”
Another reason could be due to having been raised by controlling and/or homophobic parents.
Lehmiller explains: “When a person feels a lot of outward pressure to be homophobic from their parents, they might strive to repress or deny their sexual orientation in order to earn their parents’ love.”
“This theory argues that we are motivated to resolve these inconsistencies when we become aware of them because they are psychologically uncomfortable,” Lehmiller writes.
For instance, when LGBTQ-identifying Republicans continued to support their party in 2016 despite it adopting one of the most virulently homophobic platforms in its history.
“This person might rationalize the inconsistency by thinking to themselves that ‘the party’s official platform doesn’t really mean anything anyway.’ In other words, these individuals may actively look for ways to rationalize their inconsistent beliefs and feelings whenever discrepancies come to light.”
Related: Rep. Nick Sauer isn’t the only Republican dealing with a raunchy sex scandal at the moment
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tham
And good dose of “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”
StraightnNarrow
That phrase is such a cliche and over quoted. Try to refrain from posting it again.
theafricanwiththemouth
@StraightnNarrow Nope! It’s ageless and it fits the situations of these homophobes so well.
Almost like it was created for them.. It will be quoted for ever and ever.
Kangol
Dr. Lehmiller sounds right on the money to me. Psychosexual repression, self-loathing, and self-enforced conformity can lead to dangerous outcomes for the repressed person and for everyone else around them.
Paco
I have always believed that closeted men like this are the most damaging to gay rights. That is why it is important that all of them that assume political positions of power must have their hypocrisy outed.
Unfortunately there isn’t much that can be done about the other hypocrites that only use the ballot box to harm us while on their way back to the wife and kids after having their clandestine gay sex hook ups.
Billy Budd
Come on, this was already discovered early in the 20th century by Freud and his daughter Anna. DEFENSE MECHANISMS they are called:
REACTION FORMATION
With reaction formation, you are going beyond denial and behaving in the opposite way to which you think or feel. Typically, reaction formation is marked by a blatant display. For example, the man who preaches his disdain for homosexuality overtly may be a defense against confronting his own homosexual feelings. By casting stones at someone or something else, you are trying to take the pressure off yourself instead of directly dealing with the issue.
msfrost
Sigmund Fraud, he was found to have made-up, much of his data.
DCguy
So why are anti-lgbt Republicans continually getting caught out as being self hating closet cases?
Gee, Religion, Homophobic parents, Self hating….
Yeah, the exact same thing everybody’s been saying for decades.
QueerTruth
So… water is wet huh?
I mean… geez… I read both the original and this blog. This is entirely speculations. Obvious speculation, but I read ZERO actual research. So no offense, but this article is simply an opinion.
alfred
what do you expect, he works for the Kinsey Institute. Not tryna be shady, but that org’s ‘research’ is flimsy at best and is just a PR machine basically. Which is sad as there IS so much more to study in regards to sexual desire. But I take anything that anyone connect to it says with a grain of salt.
gymmuscleboy
Hypocrisy is bad… but that bear is pretty hot!
msfrost
Tham, that phrase was written by Shakespeare and is timeless.
OzJosh
While elements of the good doctors analysis may well apply, my observation is that these conservatives’ thinking is much simpler – and it is essentially that they believe the rules just don’t apply to them. They can fuck men and not be gay, just like their phenomenally deluded guru Roy Cohn. And they can uphold christian values and condemn the gay community, without seeing their own behaviour as hypocritical – bizarre though that is. Actually, the same pathology runs through all conservative values if you care to look – I’m not a selfish person; I truly care about my community – it’s just that I don’t want to pay taxes or fund social services for those in need.
the_ashpan
I take it the age of consent is 18 in America? ….. This reminds me of the British Conservative party of the 80s/90s when they were making laws to stop Teachers from even being allowed to mention the word Homosexual as well as stripping gay people of employment/human rights and yet the Sunday papers wee always finding MPs using rent boys and grooming kids etc…..then they’d do the obligatory family picture whilst standing down from their seat citing “family reasons”……its a joke…..Now they are trying to look like the party that’s very gay persons best friend…..we have memories though, they don’t factor that one in come election time. How any LGBTQ person can vote for (let alone join) a Conservative party (in ANY country) is truly beyond me….all it shows is a true lack of moral fibre, as well as weakness….They should remember all those who have gone before and taken all the s**t so they could come out and not get lynched…..but, that’s just my opinion.