Saying that rancid homophobes were often gay themselves was once a just anecdotal supposition, and a great irony that befell the likes of like Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, George Rekers, and so on.

Now a study from Richard Ryan, professor of clinical and social psychology at the University of Rochester, says that people who identify as very heterosexual (and very anti-gay) often tend to have unexpressed homosexual tendencies.

Medical XPress summarizes:

The findings provide new empirical evidence to support the psychoanalytic theory that the fear, anxiety, and aversion that some seemingly heterosexual people hold toward gays and lesbians can grow out of their own repressed same-sex desires, Ryan says… The findings may help to explain the personal dynamics behind some bullying and hate crimes directed at gays and lesbians, the authors argue. Media coverage of gay-related hate crimes suggests that attackers often perceive some level of threat from homosexuals. People in denial about their sexual orientation may lash out because gay targets threaten and bring this internal conflict to the forefront, the authors write.

Four separate experiments were conducted in the United States and Germany, drawing on a total of about 640 college students—a good sample size.

Is it good to have science confirm what a lot of us already expected—that the anti-gay bullies really just want to make sweet, sweet love to their gay targets?