What accounts for the homophobia in gay-bashing straights; and the heterophobia in straight-bashing gays?

Difference in opinion, the driving force behind pretty much every conflict evar.

That said, there is no homophobia, neither is there heterophobia. Those (specifically “homophpbia” since it actually gets used) are terms coined to marginalize and dehumanize the other side. The reasoning is something like, “Those people must be crazy, so we don’t have to pay them any attention.”

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I don’t understand why straights have a problem with Gays. I like them: they leave more women for us.

@zen_ Not if there are as many gays as lesbians.

I think the main reason straight people have a problem with gays is either because of hatred that they were taught, or to cover up their own homosexuality.

I think the main reason gay people hate straight people is because they put up with way too much shit for being gay and develop a xenophobic attitude.

@zen_ For the record, it’s not the people that most of us have a problem with. It is, if you’ll pardon the expression, the gayness.

@boots I don’t see where you get the accusations of hatred from. I don’t think that I’ve ever met anybody who hated gays.

@Nullo I have. I have met many. I was actually once told when I was a child by my former brother in law that if I was gay, he would kill me.

So yeah. There are people out there that hate gay people.

Also, (for your reply towards @zen_) The “gayness”??? Lord forbid if anyone act outside the norm!!!! Different behaviour?!?!?! HOW DARE THEY!!!

@boots Haven’t you heard? Lesbians “are 4.5 times more likely to have fifty or more male sexual partners in a lifetime”. Don’t believe me? I’ve found a website that says it is so.

@fundevogel Where the hell are all the lesbians at then?!?!~

Because people are still not used to the idea that difference is not a bad thing? No doubt it’s also caused by stupid old beliefs that have been passed down generations and have not yet withered away into non-existence.
The gays who do straight-bashing probably do so out of resentment against straight people for hating them in the first place.
I similarly don’t understand why people feel the need to make other’s sexual preferences (that are not harming anyone) any of their business. It’s all so immature.

@Nullo I have met literally hundreds of people who hate gays. Starting with my father. In many cases, they learn this hate from parents or from their local religious community. Most of the anti-gay propaganda in the western world is religious in origin.

I think those gays who end up hating straights is because they eventually get so sick of being beaten up, spat at, fired from their jobs, disowned by their families and told that they’re going to hell because of who they love.

Personally I agree with @NaturallyMe – I don’t get why people get so worked up about the sexual practises of complete strangers.

People fear what is different, because they do not understand it. For heterophobic gay people, I would add that their negative attitudes towards straight people have a reactionary component. Because they’ve experienced prejudice from straight people, they learn to be fearful and defensive in all their interactions with them.