There’s growing evidence that Omar S. Mateen, the man who shot up a gay nightclub in Orlando, was gay himself. If true, it begs the question: Why would someone who’s gay single out other gay people for a massacre?
The answer is what scientists call “internalized homophobia,” or the idea that homophobes may actually be hidden homosexuals.
A study published in 2012 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who are the most hostile towards gays and hold strong anti-gay views may themselves have same-sex desires — albeit latent ones — that they cannot reckon with.
“Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves,” Netta Weinstein, a lecturer at the University of Essex and the study’s lead author, told Science Daily.
In other words, people in denial about their sexual orientation may more easily lash out because gays are a walking and talking reminder of their own internal battle. “In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,” adds co-author Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester who helped direct the research.
Researchers also found that parenting played a big part in fomenting hatred and spite against gays. Visceral disgust of homosexuals was generally more pronounced in closeted gay and lesbians who grew up with rigid parents or in an environment that forbade homosexuality altogether—as was the case for Mateen, a devout Muslim.
Mateen’s father, Seddique Mir Mateen, made headlines on Monday for posting a video to Facebook, in which he expressed remorse for his son’s actions before saying that it was up to God to publish gays and it was “not an issue that humans should deal with.”
The gunman had also voiced hatred of minorities, gays and Jews; and he was reportedly enraged by seeing two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago. But he was also a regular at Pulse, the gay nightclub were he opened fired on Sunday, USA Today reports.
In fact, according to his ex-wife, Omar Mateen was gay. A former classmate claims Mateen frequented gay bars and even asked him out on a date.
