Were you previously homophobic before realising your orientation?

My experience is exactly like YuriCore's.

I had never experienced homophobia before I knew I liked boys. In my case this is a long time ago. I grew up in the 1970's and - perhaps I was lucky - even though I was very different to other 'normal' boys no one ever called me out for it or tried to correct it.

It was only in the 1980's when, in the UK, the social atmosphere became all of a sudden rabidly homophobic, that I was exposed to it. It seemed bizarre at the time. Why was everyone so suddenly filled with hate. The government, the media, everywhere was suddenly vocally homophobic. It was extremely confusing and depressing at the time.

 

I wasn't really homophobic but I used to say homophobic things in middle/high school just to fit in.

When I was very young I was out shopping with my mom and the cashier was a very flamboyant man, I started acting all weird I guess, I cant really remember but I might have said something inappropriate.

I bet the cashier knew I was a little closet case who was exposed to homophobia. Why else would a kid act that way?

 

Kind of yes, kind of no? I basically didn't know it was a thing, being raised in a small town where everyone hushed such things up. I don't even think I met a person that I could understand they were LGBT somehow before before, like, high school, by the time I knew more about it from online and didn't have any problem with it.

My friend group sucked, they were all kind of shitty people from the start, and they were homophobic, so I kind of played along, even while I probably got called gay or queer more than anyone because of my mannerisms that I didn't understand were somehow deemed weird and stuff.

But no, I was never really homophobic, I think, though I did follow along with gay jokes and stuff like that.

 

Yes, extremely so. And maybe even a little, still. I'm a self-loathing homosexual, and while I've come to grips with the fact that I can't do anything about my orientation, I feel that maybe I haven't been involved enough in the gay community (and I mean in person) to make an informed decision about my own internalized homophobia. But prior to engaging in homosexuality, I was extremely prejudiced, and it wasn't even out of any religious reasons, I just didn't like gay people.

Then one day I met with an older cousin of mine, who I call "Uncle" and my Uncle is gay, and we struck up a conversation about our interests and I realized that within the well-informed gay community there are a lot of people minded like me, people who are interested in higher cinema, the works of William S. Burroughs and modern art exhibits and it made me rethink my position on the gay community, who I previously viewed as being nothing more than a bunch of abrasive rainbow flag waving 'queens' to more of a group of well educated, classier folk than straight folk community that understands the things I like better than I do.

That said, I still struggle internally with my self-loathing issues. But when I think of the gay community I try to think of the classier side of things, the high cinema, the modern art, the literature and the admirers thereof. While it pains me to think that I could go hopping into a gay pride parade, obnoxiously waving the bear pride flag, I like to think that if I could, it would lift a lot off my shoulders as that's really more of a ceremonial thing than an everyday thing as I previously thought. I'm sorry, this is a very long answer that has little to do with your question, but it's my two cents.

 

Me, not at all. I don't care. As long as you're happy. Gay people don't hurt anyone. I don't understand why people even bother. Sure, somebody has to produce kids. But there are enough straight people and we have overpopulation anyway

 

As disappointed as I am, I have made a few homophobic comments in the past

 

When I was about eight for a few days I was repeating a homophobic thing somebody had said, but I think that's it. I'm proud of myself.

 

I have never truly been homophobic but I certainly had an attitude through my teens. I became unnecessarily confrontational, said outwardly homophobic things, became a somewhat macho/asshole person, and had a major issue with almost everything imaginable. I got involved in gang-ish activities, built a criminal record, did some short jail time. There was many reasons for this, but confusion over my natural orientation was probably part of the issue. I actually thought I was gay as a teen, and forced myself to like women. I appreciate both now, but back then it was an odd internal struggle because I accepted that I was gay, but I wasn't going to give in because of how other people would perceive me. So I definitely overcompensated in my attitude and my homophobic behavior.

 

Absolutely not, I was taught that stuff like that is unacceptable by my grandfather. My pops used to tell me that he, and the others in my family signed up for the military to defend everyone, not just whites or straights.

 

I'm afraid to say that yes, I did have my homophobic moments. Thing is, I always "knew" my orientation on at least some level, so I was very clearly working to deny my feelings when I acted in a homophobic way. I never called anyone a f*g or anything, but I made it clear to people that I didn't "approve" of same-sex relationships, while at the very same time I thought those guys playing baseball over there looked awfully beautiful.......

I'm not proud of those moments... :-(

 

I was. I remember seeing two women kiss in public when I was 12 or so and thinking "I realize that isn't socially acceptable, so why can't these grown ups get with the program!?!" and being angry about it, because of course it drew a nasty comment from my mother who had, until that point, been in a good mood.

So, that sums up my sexual childhood; trying to paint reality to be a picture my mother wants to see because I wanted to keep her appeased. I remember when I learned that her views weren't socially acceptable and that I shouldn't publicly state them. Then, I got to high school and people came out and I didn't personally care in the least because I had my own life to live. She was so happy I was a virgin for so long...

 

as a kid, I was always kinda uncomfortable around the topic but around age 10 when I started questioning, I started talking about it freely

 

Nope. I was raised in a very accepting family, and I just never saw a reason to hate upon LBGTQ+ people. This also applies to transphobia, probably because I made a connection to the word transgender when I found out what it meant. I did hate myself for being trans/gay though.

 

Yeah, a bit. I live in a small town, and when I was first introduced to the concept of homosexuality, it wasn't exactly shown in a positive light. All the other kids thought it was weird and gross and so I kind of accepted that that's what it was, despite not really understanding why.

 

Nope. My mom remembers me as "a raging feminist", which she was not, so she said it was the fault of the TV show I watched at my dad's - namely, Buffy and Dark Angel. Girls, girls, girls...

 

I certainly told myself my feelings were wrong and was def homophobic. Kind of disgusted by seeing two guys kiss. I don't really care now, though I don't like to kiss other men (hard to explain, I know and that is not intended as a judgment).

 

Nope. I was transphobic, though. :bang:

 

Um... yes. A little bit. I was like the other kids in my school. Using gay as an insult and all. I remember defending a girl on the bus saying, "I don't hold anything against it [two girls kissing], I just don't wanna see it". I honestly didn't see this as homophobic, but I do now. Unless you don't like seeing ANYBODY kissing.
There was one openly gay guy at our school. Nobody hated him for it, but we all (including me) thought of him as "the gay guy" like that's all he was.
That was before I truly started questioning myself and felt a bit depressed. In 2013 and early 2014 I was living in denial, spending each day trying to convince myself I wasn't gay. This questioning, denial, and repression actually eased my homophobia rather than fueled it. I was totally fine with other people being gay, but when it came to me... NO WAY.
So I was a little homophobic, though at no point can I say I actually hated gays.

 

I grew up not really knowing what genders where, so homophobic comments never made sense to me.Thus I degraded them to nonsense humans spew out when they can no longer control their maturity. >.< Ironically the transphobic ones really hit home though.