this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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I've seen so many men terrified of anything gay themed. I've watched men refuse to be friends with people who didn't act manly enough. I've watched grown-ass men bark "f@gg0+," every time they saw 2 dudes expressing an interest in one another on TV. Pink Pony Club, I Kissed a Girl, and several other songs are a complete turn-off for them.

I have to ask, what scares you guys? What, sitting in the pit of your stomach, do you feel and think when you see gay things?

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[โ€“] Maerman@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)

They are afraid of liking it.

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[โ€“] Melobol@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

I suspect it is somewhat similar of women looking at each other and judging each other about "giving out free milk. Biggest slut shamers are women, tho men are right after them lol.

So from a purely guessing point of view:

Place in society, and perceived safety of norm enforcement and the fact, that historically being gay was (almost/mostly) a death sentence.

Raising yourself up by hating someone else "at least I am not XYZ" or "it would suck to be XYZ I'm so much better" is an easy copium.

And distraction also: if you hate someone else, you won't have time to hate yourself.

[โ€“] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

"The problem men see with lesbians, is that they do not want to have sex them. But gay men do."

This phrase is from a book of the early 2000's, about language, jargon and, in one chapter, prejudice and specifically prejudice on sexuality.

It's the most destilled explanation I ever found.

I sincerely don't care about what others want for their life, as long as they are happy and not hurting anyone.

Well, you're gonna have trouble finding many men here that are genuinely "afraid" if homosexuality. Those that exist are unlikely to respond because it's painting a giant target on themselves.

So, you'll likely have to settle for second and third hand answers.

With that caveat in mind, I grew up in the south where the kind of homophobia that isn't necessarily bigotry (though it usually is) sometimes gets discussed if you approach people right.

The general answers I ever got amounted to social approbation. They're not so much scared of gay people, or gay acts, and almost universally not of "turning gay". It's that they have this idea that behind anything other than anti gay gets them tarred and feathered with the same brush.

Yeah, the other reasons exist, but it really does come down to being scared of sharing the same fate as gay people if they don't object enough. And it is an actual fear, rather than hatred, it just shares the same external trappings. And, for most of the people that have that fear, they would rather share the label of bigot than the label of gay.

But make no mistake, it isn't common. The kind of yelling-at-the-screen shit is just as performative, but it's the flip side of the fear. Those assholes believe that they seem more manly by doing so. It's territorial pissing and chest thumping.

It's one of the reasons I dislike phobia being the suffix for forms of bigotry. While phobos, and thus phobia has relation to rejection of things, it's a misnomer to say that most bigots are really acting out of fear. Which is dangerous, possibly even more dangerous than regular hate. But also not as dangerous as blind hatred paired with dehumanization of a target. The mental processes involved in bigotry are far more insidious than simple ignorance and fear of the unfamiliar.

Which is tangential, but I think worth examining.

[โ€“] 1Malayali@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I think you should probably ask a person like that(someone who you can ask)?

Other than that, maybe religion and doubt against what they consider as 'not-normal'?

[โ€“] sunsofold@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

No one is afraid of the gays. (Well, no one who isn't mentally ill.) They are afraid of some locus of power, which, despite what some pundits claim about the force of the 'woke mob,' gay people do not have significant power. Some person or group of people have power in their life, and those boys are willing to sacrifice other peoples' happiness, safety, and sometimes even lives, so they can virtue signal to the powers that be. "See? I'm attacking the scapegoat too, so I must be a good guy. I'm certainly not hiding a thousand secret sins that might make me an outcast. How could I be? That'd be hypocritical because then I'd be evil like him. So I'm attacking him. See? This proves I'm good.'

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