Calling out the extremely toxic effects of repressive hetero-normative culture is NOT homophobia... [View all]

[markpkessinger]

. . . nor is it "victim blaming." I say this as a gay man who has been out and proud for 36 years (since age 19). Rather, it is about recognizing how truly toxic a virulently repressive, hetero-normative culture can be in some instances. In the case of the Orlando shooter, you can agree or disagree that his own, internal conflict over his sexual identity was at issue, but to say that any suggestion that it might have been so is "homophobic" or represents "victim blaming" is to profoundly misunderstand what is being said (and what isn't being said). This isn't blaming his outburst on the fact that he might have been gay himself, but rather is blaming the repressive culture in which he grew up that lay at the source of his internal conflict.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that by denying that this could possibly have been a factor, what you are actually doing is getting hetero-normative culture off the hook for its own toxicity!