Research Reveals a Link Between Homophobia & Psychotism

Researchers at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy claim to have found a 

“remarkable association between dysfunctional aspects of personality and homophobic attitudes.”

 They asked over 500 college students ages 18 to 30 to complete a series of psychometric evaluations in an effort to assess their levels of homophobia, psychopathologic symptoms, defense mechanisms and attachment styles.

What they discovered was that students who scored highly on the psychoticism tests also tended to be more homophobic, “demonstrating that pathologic personality traits are involved in homophobic attitudes.”

Psychoticism is a psychological trait often found in severe mental conditions that can contribute to heightened states of anger and hostility.

“Our study follows a controversial issue regarding homophobia as a possible mental disorder,” researchers concluded.

 “After discussing for centuries if homosexuality is to be considered a disease, for the first time we demonstrated that the real disease to be cured is homophobia, associated with potentially severe psychopathologies.”

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Homophobic Bigots Gotta See this

#WORD Happy Sunday Lovelies.... 

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My Gay Life In Nigeria - Isolation, Danger & Fear Homophobia

Ethan Regal tells his personal story of living in Nigeria as a gay man:

When I was a young boy in Lagos, Nigeria, I had a mysterious, unexplainable tingling sensation whenever I saw an attractive guy. The stories I heard regarding romance involved a boy and girl. So I thought to myself: maybe I’m a girl deep down. That seemed like the only explanation for my attraction. 

I kept thinking that may be God made a mistake. Perhaps I was meant to be a girl. I never had issues with my body. I wasn’t interested in getting rid of my joystick or growing breasts. I just thought that in order to be with a boy I have to be a girl.

Gay people in Nigeria were invisible - constantly hiding. We never had TV series or movies with gay characters so I was confused. All I knew was that people discussed homosexuality with so much disgust. 

At the age of nine or ten, depression kicked in as I realised my family would hate me if they learnt the truth. Even in school, I was bullied by classmates. My friends made fun of my femininity. I tried to blend in by playing sports but I was terrible. I had only one friend and he was feminine as well - but not gay. The two of us were frequently bullied, physically and emotionally. Most nights we contemplated suicide. We even talked about poisoning the guys who attacked us. It sounds crazy but picture yourself in a boarding house stuck in there day and night for months with boys relentlessly attacking you.

Here in Nigeria I haven’t met a single gay guy, at least not one that I know of. I have tried chatting to some men through Grindr but I fear someone might track me and arrest or kill me. 

Although I’ve been chatting online with a guy for a year we’ve never met. He advised me that the best way to survive is to live a sexless life. There’s no one to trust and if you get HIV securing proper treatment is very rare. Yes, it’s that bad.

I have spent most of my life living in fear. I have very little freedom in Nigeria.

Life is dangerous. I saw a video at an online news site where two suspected gay men were being beaten to death with planks of wood; their blood splattered on the ground. I saw the crowd watching. Kids were among the onlookers. No one did anything to stop their murder. 

Another video I watched this year shows a mob surrounding two Unclad men in a derelict building; forcing them to have sex as a way of degrading them. One Unclad man tugs the joystick of the other on the orders of the vigilantes. The eyes of the Unclad men flicker through the crowd with fear. A member of the crowd punches the man whose joystick is being tugged and shouts at him to become erect and penetrate the other man. Once erect, he enters him. One of onlookers asks, “Has it entered?” Everyone in the crowd is recording this moment on their phones. This is Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 2014. The vigilantes are, apparently, 'normal' people, yet they are deliberately terrorising and humiliating two men suspected of homosexuality.

My mother told me about a gay man who flirted with a male hairdresser at a salon. The hairdresser wasn’t gay and immediately took offence. He yelled and alerted a crowd of people who gathered around the gay man, hurling insults and assaulting him.  

There was a time when newspapers published the names, addresses and photographs of some of the House of Rainbow Metropolitan Community Church members. It’s an LGBT-friendly church and several members were threatened and beaten. 

I know about gay men being raped and the gang rape of a lesbian - all by straight men. This isn’t about sex or sexual orientation. It’s all about power, violence and malicious homophobic abuse.  

Early this year, suspected gays in the northern part of Nigeria were reportedly caught and stoned to death. The consensus is that homosexuals deserve it, and that the country needs to be cleansed.

 Also, I’ve heard about guys who flirt with gay men just to lure them into a death-trap. They deceive the gay guy and invite him to a certain place where other homophobes are waiting to attack. I think this was how a guy I used to chat with on Grindr died. His corpse was found in pool of blood in a hotel room that was booked by some guy and his friend.

When the anti-gay Bill was passed by President Goodluck Jonathan earlier this year, he had a lot of supporters. Most Nigerians claimed it was the only way to avoid the country becoming the modern Sodom and Gomorrah. They forgot that in Genesis 19, when the men from Sodom besieged Lot’s house, they wanted to gang rape the angels which had come in the form of men. Lot offered them his daughters instead but they refused. It wasn’t about homosexuality. 

Among those supporting the new homophobic legislation were the Christian Association of Nigeria, Ndigbo Cultural Society of Nigeria, Adada Media Forum and Jama’atu Nasril Islam. Prominent individual backers included the national publicity secretary of Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani; Senator Rowland Owie; and Director of Social Communications at the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Monsignor Gabriel Osu. 

Elder statesman and veteran politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, said: “President Jonathan should be commended for taking a bold step to sign the Bill into law. Same-sex marriage is not only alien to Nigeria but to the entire African continent.”

The Ndigbo Cultural Society of Nigeria president, Chief Udo Udeogaranya, said the new homophobic law would preserve and sustain African culture. But he wants the government to go further: 

“We urge members of the National Assembly and the President to consider filtering and censoring programmes being disseminated into the country from the Western media, as another major step in protecting our young ones from immoral and uncultured views.”

There’s poverty, poor education and a high unemployment rate in Nigeria but the government chooses to focus on homosexuality. 

This is a country where people die from Boko Haram bomb explosions, car accidents due to bad roads, a high crime rate and poor healthcare, yet the majority of people support the government's claim that homosexuality is the main issue in Nigeria. You can only argue against this anonymously and online. Anyone who does so is bombarded with abuse and accused of being gay.

I’m sick of hearing this homophobia - and hiding. I’m speaking out because keeping quiet hasn’t done us any good. I’m speaking out because I had a taste of freedom for the first time when I was studying in England and I want to taste it again. I want it to linger this time. I want to share that freedom with other gays in Nigeria. I want everyone to be proud of who they are. The majority of Nigerians need to be properly educated. Their fear is a product of misunderstanding. 

I have argued with some homophobic Nigerians and from what I noticed they hate gays because they were told to hate us by their religion. They also think: “Gay people are not like us, therefore they are bad.” 

They have zero clue what it’s like to be gay, which from my perspective gives them a better reason not to judge. Besides isn’t it a sin to judge? Isn’t it a sin to kill? Jesus stopped those men from stoning the adulteress in the Bible but these Nigerians, these Africans persecuting homosexuals in the name of God, have forgotten the actual the word of God. 

I know I’m not safe; none of us are. If we aren’t being persecuted we’re living in another hell, pretending each day that we’re just like everyone else. Lying to ourselves and depriving ourselves of a brighter future. Do we want to spend our lives sexless? If we get into a relationship do we want it to be hidden forever? Most of us want to have kids? How do we get there? That’s why I’m speaking up.

•    Ethan Regal lives in Nigeria. His name is a pseudonym to protect him from violent reprisals.

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Some Peeps Won't Like This :-)

Most Homophobes are homosexuals who can't come to terms with themselves! 100% Fact!

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Lets discuss Homophobia in Nigeria.

     

    Have you ever solemnly considered what it is about homosexuals that scare you? I use the word homosexuals to refer to both lesbians and gays, but I’ll tell you this, I am really interested in talking about homophobia as it concerns gay men, because for some reason that is beyond me, we never seem to be angry or threatened by lesbians. Infact I have heard one too many times how exciting the thought of two women doing it could be, but however connected the case of lesbian-acceptance is to homophobia against men, I won’t be addressing it here. So, what is it about two men getting hot and heavy with each other that seem to terrify y’all?

       This is not the time to whip out your Holy books at me, keep them aside for a second, will you? I know you don’t think about what your Holy books say when you go around lying, cheating, and stealing,but, I know, I know. Those are lesser sins compared to two men Being Intimate. I mean, those of you who lie, cheat and steal, will get one day of hell, right? And the gays will get forever. It makes perfect sense, you are worried about their eternity in hell so much that you can forget your one day in hell, how kind of you. I would go on with more sarcastic scenarios of punishments for “big” and “small” sins, but I’d hate to lose my point, which is this: you cannot use religion as a basis for condemning the gays because you are guilty of quite many things that your religion has condemned as well, but I don’t see you judging yourself. Or is it between you and your God? If so, why can we not leave the gays to settle their issue with their God(s)?

        Do you really imagine that you have a sense of propriety when you openly declare your hate for the gays? To Nigeria’s leaders, do you lot think that by signing into law anti-gay bills that your crookedness, your corruptness will be ignored or maybe forgiven by God? No, really why dowe hate the gays? Is it some deeper issue that I have yet to understand or a mere case of hypocrisy? Or were our very thoughtful leaders trying to prevent a Sodom & Gomorrah type situation by passing the bill into law? Aw, how very thoughtful, if that is the case. Nigeria is still doomed though, and it has nothing to do with whether or not the state recognizes and accepts same sex couples or not. It’s at this point I’d start listing allof the reasons why Nigeria is doomed, but I bet you know them. Or maybe you don’t, which makes you part of the problem, or maybe you do know them but are in one way or the other still a part of the problem. I just want a sensible reason why I should take a piss on the rights of individuals who feel love and/or attraction for each other; I have not found it yet. So if you can give me one, please do, however, no religious based arguments, chances are that you’ve broken most of the rules yourself. I mean, you’re not Jesus, the perfect son of God. In anticipation of the event that no one can come up with a logical reason for homophobia, I’ll advise that you channel your contempt for the gays to contempt for our thieving leaders; the man/woman who (sexually) abused your sister, brother, wife, mother; Boko Haram; ignorance; hypocrisy, and the many other gazillion things that mess up Nigeria. And let it not just end at contempt, (it’s a long stretch but I’ll take my chances) actively seek to erase these things from within yourself, and then from others around you. After all, Ghandi wisely said we should be the change we want to see. Thank you!

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