The Orlando Shooter Doth Protest Too Much, Me Thinks

“The lady doth protest too much, me think.” –Act III, Hamlet

Shakespeare’s famous line from Hamlet has often been used to describe someone whose vehement protestations are an attempt to convince others of something for which the exact opposite is true. Three hundred years after Shakespeare, Sigmund Freud recognized the same defense mechanism when he coined the term reaction formation. Reaction formation is usually triggered by the anxiety and guilt one experiences when they believe their thoughts and feelings to be unacceptable, intolerable, or shameful or when to show one’s true feelings would lead to greater anxiety or embarrassment. For example, if an overweight child is made fun of by other children, he may hide his pain by reacting the opposite of how he truly feels. Instead of crying, he may laugh the loudest and even make jokes at his own expense to avoid the shame of letting the others see that they’ve hurt him.

One of the areas to which reaction formation has been applied is Homophobia. Have you ever known a person who has to constantly assert their heterosexuality? Not just in the ‘normal’ way, but at seemingly strange times when sexual orientation isn’t even a topic of conversation. These same people may also make the most negative comments about gay men and lesbians, again, in a way that seems out of place in its vehemence. What about the politician who is out-spoken in his or her distain of homosexuality and proposes multiple pieces of legislation to limit the rights of homosexuals, only to be found soliciting men in airport bathrooms? Or the preacher who profusely preaches the sins of homosexuality only to be found in a hotel room with a male prostitute. According to reaction formation, these people would respond this way to hide their true attraction to same sex individuals, an attraction which produces anxiety and shame. To hide the truth, they react in ways that would throw any suspicion off them, as if, through their anti-gay actions, they can change their true thoughts and feelings.

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And there is research to back up this theory. The seminal study of reaction formation and homophobia comes from a 1996 study by Adams, Wright, and Lohr. The researchers measured the sexual arousal of heterosexual males either high or low in homophobia while watching sexually explicit heterosexual, lesbian, and gay male films. Both groups showed arousal to the first two categories, but only men high in homophobia showed arousal to the gay male films. It should be noted that some argued that the penile arousal shown by these men could have been anger, however, subsequent research has shown that penile arousal is a highly unlikely physiological response to anger or aggression. More resent research has further backed up these findings showing that highly homophobic heterosexual men showed more shame toward same-sex attraction leading the researchers to conclude that “same-sex attracted men who deny any gay inclination may be experiencing external shame… fearing judgment from others” (Paris, 2014). Finally, research has shown that children who grow up in homes with parents who thwart their autonomy or sense of choice and who judge the correctness of their child’s feelings, attitudes, and beliefs, are more likely to hide their “true” sexual orientation as adults and, consistent with reaction formation, display higher levels of homophobia (DeHaan, Przbylski, Legate, & Ryan, 2012).

And that brings us to the Orlando shooter.

The dude doth protest too much, me thinks.

Given the body of research on homophobia and reaction formation, it was unsurprising to hear that the co-workers of the shooter said he frequently made homophobic remarks and that just days before the shooting, the shooter had protested over seeing two men kiss all while secretly seeking male companionship for years.The fact that he used ISIS as one last cover for his internal feelings is just further demonstration of the power of the need to protect our ego and the lengths humans will go to, to do so.

Whether it’s the football player bullying the gay kid at school, the politician on Capitol Hill mandating anti-gay legislation, or the married man shooting people in a gay nightclub who are openly living the life he’s too ashamed to live, as long as we, as parents and as cultures, continue to judge others because of who they are or who they love, people will continue denigrating and harming the very community they wish they had the courage to join.