To varying degrees, all, or at least 80 %, of people have homo- erotic fantasies, or concious, but perhaps not strong or pervasive, homo-erotic desires, even though they may claim to be 100% heterosexual.

Our society is obsessed with enforcing the patriarchal, binary, heterosexual, “norm”.

Due to the pressure, from birth, to “be” cis and heterosexual, and the desire to “belong” to a certain, majority,(therefore powerful), group, fear, shame and resentment/hatred are used to deny and repress those perfectly natural desires.

This pressure is directed at everyone, from every direction, continuously, daily. This pressure is endemic in our society.

The weapon of fear/shame/hatred is used to force others to conform. It is used so consistently, continuously, throughout every person’s life, that, by sheer repetition, it is ingrained into the 'internal-dialogue' of everyone.

Many of us who are not cis and/ or het, through a long and tortuous process, learn to,(mostly), overcome this conditioning. Many don’t.

Even if not a repressed, fully homosexual person, the 'programmed' internal-dialogue is still very active in producing the fear/shame/hatred reaction, in reaction to homo-erotic desires that are infrequent and relatively minor. Having, more or less, succeeded in repressing and denying these perfectly natural desires, the subject may react with a fight-or-flight response, when confronted with a visual reminder. This response may be internalized or expressed externally, or any combination of the two. It is, always, an internal fear reaction, in the beginning, even if it is a split-second, 'knee-jerk' reaction.

Generally, the more virulent the homophobia, the more 'internally gay' a person is. This, though, is not always the case, as people are complex. The virulence of the reaction is, often, more related to the intensity of the individual’s fear, sometimes hysterical, than the “amount of gayness".The motives of people are greatly varied and, in addition to the repression of homo-erotic desires, other factors can, and often do, come into play.

Many people may dissagree with my assessment of the phenomenon, but I am correct. It’s quite obvious.

Oh, and James, I hope that this doesn’t sound like a refutation of your essay. I enjoyed it. This is simply what fell out of my head…

😍😘😇🙏🏼