Haggard's Law
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Haggard's law is an internet adage or epigram named after Pastor Ted Haggard that is typically stated as:
| “ | The louder and more frequent one's objections to homosexuality are, the more likely one is to be a homosexual. | ” |
It is used as either a purely sarcastic musing that people who strongly object to homosexuality are scientifically proven to be more likely to engage in homosexual activities,[1] or in a reflection of the probability based on the numerous public scandals[2][3][4][5] of famous figures in the opposition of homosexuality and homosexual behavior.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Internet adage made its first published appearance in an article[6] written by Dennis DiClaudio of Comedy Central fame and is named after American evangelical preacher Ted Haggard. It was created after and is reference to a scandal[3] involving prostitute and masseur Mike Jones who alleged that Haggard had paid Jones to engage in sex with him for three years and had also purchased and used crystal methamphetamine.[7] Although he denies using the methamphetamine or having sex with Mr. Jones, the scandal has caused many to view Pastor Haggard being extremely hypocritical about his spoken views, as he was known to publicly preach against Homosexuality.[8]
Original quote by author Dennis DiClaudio:
Haggard's Law –
The likelihood of a person harboring secret desires to engage in sexual and/or romantic activities with members of the same sex is directly proportional to the frequency and volume of said person's vocalized objections to homosexuality.[6]
The "law" is more generally used to reference extreme hypocrisy in public figures who lead the moral opposition of homosexuality, and then are discovered to have partaken in homosexuality or homosexual behavior.
[edit] Science?
A 1996 study[9] from the University of Georgia indicated that the effect may actually be real. In the study, 64 men were assessed by the "homophobia index" and their arousal by homosexual and heterosexual images were measured and they were split into a two groups, "homophobic" and "non-homophobic". In the "non-homophobic" group, 66% showed no arousal yet in the "homophobic" group only 20% managed to restrain themselves from getting aroused - and significantly underestimated their own arousal.[10] However, it should be noted that what was measured as arousal may have been the result of the uncomfortable feelings the homophobic group were feeling on seeing homosexual imagery. The authors of the study did note that "anxiety has been shown to enhance arousal and erection" so this confounding factor may explain the results more consistently.
Additional studies seem to confirm previous suspicions, reflecting that outspoken homophobia is more likely to be present among homosexuals whose parents were authoritarian about the subject.[11]
[edit] Other causes
It is possible that Haggard's Law comes down purely to selective reporting and cherry picking. In general, there are many people who are "closet" homosexuals, and many that may sleep with gay prostitutes (though perhaps not all getting round to snorting crystal meth out of their arse crack). A large majority of these people will not be vocally homophobic and in the public sphere. Similarly, there are many open homophobes and anti-gay protesters, some of which are also in the public sphere but haven't slept around with the same sex. Where these two groups fail to cross, the story is hardly considered notable. However, when these groups do overlap the resulting irony meter shattering hypocrisy is enough for everyone to sit up and take notice.
Still, everyone is waiting for Fred Phelps to come out of the closet as, let's face it, that sort of thing would warrant renaming it to Phelps' Law rather than Haggard's Law.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External Links
- TV Tropes: Armoured Closet Gay
- Days since the last prominent homophobe was caught in a gay sex scandal
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Adams, H., Wright, L. and Lohr, B. 1996. Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal? Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Vol. 105 No. 3: pp.440-445.
- ↑ Florida State Representative Accused of Offering to Perform Oral Sex Claims Innocence Fox News, July 27, 2007
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Haggard admits 'sexual immorality', apologizes. MSNBC 2006-11-05, accessed 2010-23-03
- ↑ US anti-gay rights senator Roy Ashburn comes out BBC News, March 8, 2010
- ↑ Former GOP Chief Pleads Guilty To Deviant ConductWLKY June 12, 2008
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 DiClaudio, Dennis. ""Haggard's Law," Please Add It to Your Lexicon", Comedy Central, New York, 23 March.
- ↑ Haggard admits buying Meth. MSNBC 2006-11-03, accessed 2010-23-03
- ↑ Pastor will shut down controversial kids camp 2006-11-08
- ↑ http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/abn/105/3/440/
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20040202035152/www.apa.org/releases/homophob.html
- ↑ [1]
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