Silent Violence: The Sources of Internalized Homophobia and the Damage It Does to Both Self and Others

Perverted. Immoral. Sinful. Unnatural. Illegal. Various normative terms have and continue to exist as methods for challenging the validity of homosexuality. In the context of gay and queer men and men who have sex with men, the constant bombardment from a formative age by ideas around homosexuality as wrong or abnormal can instill a complex sense of internalized homophobia. This internalized homophobia can then result in both internal and external violence towards the self, other members of the queer community, and the sources that contributed to the internalized violence. Seen in religious dialogue and experiences, politics, pop culture, and media, anti-gay and anti-MLM/MSM rhetoric can create a long-standing relationship with the individual identities of gay and queer men.  These relationships with sources of ridicule and discrimination, in turn, perpetuate issues around self-acceptance, acceptance of other gay and queer men, and acceptance of various or all religious communities. 

Looking to the various sources of anti-gay and anti-MLM/MSM rhetoric, this paper explores the violence, both physical and non-physical, done on gay and queer men’s bodies and how that violence can lead to internal violence, external violence, and counterviolence. Utilizing M. Shawn Copeland’s notion of embodiment to ground the lived experience of gay and queer men with their own physicality and the physicality of those they come in contact with, a framework can be developed for reconciling violence, whether intentional or unintentional, while restoring healthier relationships with the self, others, and community.(1)

(1) Copeland, M. Shawn. Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being. Second Edition., 2023.