I know the FBI disputes this, but supposing that they're lying as usual and the killer actually did have gay hook ups... A lot of heterosexuals just take it for granted that a violent homophobe would be gay. This isn't dismissing the other factors like religious extremism, but they have this theory that only someone who is gay and cannot come to terms with it could do this in modern america. Of course i tell them, well, that is in direct conflict with my own experiences and seems to be minimizing genuine homophobia. I also just can't wrap my head around this even a month later. I'm sure most of us wish we had a different orientation at some point, even if just as young teenagers...but to kill 50 people just because they share a characteristic we reject in ourselves? Have we ever heard of a mass murder of short people by other short people? This theory seems to be limited to sexuality, and i wonder why that is. I don't even know a term for it in psycho/sociopathology I'm equally sure this has not even occurred to hardly any of us as a solution. I mean self harm, yes, i too have been down that road. But can this massacre or gay bashing in general really be just an outward expression of (usually temporary) internal homophobia? Maybe i'm looking to the wrong place for answers, i dunno, but i hope we can have an open discussion at least
Steellord, I think the difficult thing here is that there are no easy answers for what happened in Orlando. It's tempting to just want to chalk it up to something like religious extremism or internalized homophobia, but the reality is that this is a many-headed beast. What makes a man into a killer? How does someone actually get to that point where they just decide to give up their humanity and become a monster? I wish I had answers for these questions, but all we can do is fruitlessly conjecture. Some will say it was his extremist faith. Others will point to internalized homophobia. We also cannot forget possible undiagnosed mental disorders. God only knows what truly went on in the killer's tormented head. Evil in this world often times cannot be given a satisfying explanation. By its very nature, it is a gross contradiction of what should be. All we can do in the light of such evil reach out to others who are hurting and do our best to live lives rooted in Love.
