Violence & Venom...

I have been researching hatred of homosexuality for a while now. I have come across some shocking and disturbing things.

I entered the search term 'gay' into twitter, and the vast majority of results were hateful. The blamed homosexuals for things, they used the term 'gay' to ridicule their friends or things, they declared war on homosexuality, they wanted to kill homosexuals, one man tweeted "I hate gay niggers". What a horrible, yet strange thing to say.

I watched a Dispatches documentary on Channel Four called 'Africa's Last Taboo'... The hatred out there for gay men is vicious. Crowds would gather if they knew somebody was gay. Angry crowds would surround the court rooms where gay men were being tried for the crime of being themselves.

I watched clips on youtube of a man in Jamaica been beaten and savaged by crowds of angry people. Here is a photo of the poor man:


I visited chat rooms and internet forums and discussion boards and read hateful message after hateful message. Threats of violence abound.

I could go on for hours talking about the horrible things I have witnessed but the main thing that interests me is the ferocity of which people react. Why do large mobs gather, why do they attack and murder people, why do they write such hateful and scathing words?

What is so interesting about homosexuality that it warrants such aggression and venom. Why does homosexuality warrant huge crowds baying for blood. What happens to these people? Why does homosexuality bring out this primitive fight or flight reaction in people? Do they have to prove to each other how much they hate us gays. The men are almost in competition with each other to see who hates they gays the most.

Would a murderer, a thief, or a drug dealer get such a barbaric reaction outside a courtroom?

I intend to do some further research. When these people are asked why they have such hatred they rarely give a sensible answer, they rarely introspect and delve deep and consider their cruelty.

Maybe it's all about the arse? Serious... Maybe it is. A muslim cleric on Dispatches seemed to be obsessed with the arse when he was introduced to a gay man. A police officer in Uganda was giving us a biology lesson on why the arse is an exit only. He delved deep (pun fully intended) into the muscular structure of the anus.

Maybe it is religion? I can't help feel it is much more culturally ingrained than to just blame such hatred solely on religion though. There has to be a combination of factors for such hatred.

I'll return to this...