QUEER INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

ROBERT MUGABE CHALLENGED TO 'TAKE THE TEST'

RESEARCH SHOWS THAT MOST HOMOPHOBES ARE REPRESSED HOMOSEXUALS

15-October-1997

      The notoriously homophobic President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, is being invited to take an erotic arousal test, to dispel suggestions that his antigay attitudes could be evidence of repressed homosexuality.

      Mugabe is arriving in Britain to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Edinburgh, from 24-27 October.

      OutRage! has written to Mugabe, (see below), challenging him to take a test devised by US psychologist, Prof. Henry E. Adams of the University of Georgia.

      Research by Prof. Adams suggests that 80 percent of men who are homophobic have secret homosexual feelings. In Prof. Adams's test, homophobic men who said they were exclusively heterosexual were shown gay sex videos. Four out of five became sexually aroused by the homoerotic imagery, as recorded by a penile circumference measuring device (a plethysmograph).

      Prof. Adams's research was published in the prestigious US Journal of Abnormal Psychology in 1996, with the backing of the American Psychological Association.

      President Mugabe has denounced lesbians and gays as "sexual perverts" who are "worse than dogs and pigs". "We don't believe they have any rights at all", he said. These remarks have prompted the beating, fire-bombing and arrest of homosexuals.

      Prof. Adams says his research shows that most homophobes "demonstrate significant sexual arousal to homosexual erotic stimuli", suggesting that homophobia is a form of "latent homosexuality where persons are either unaware of or deny their homosexual urges".

      These findings support the theories that homophobia (fear and hatred of gayness and support for antigay discrimination) is often indicative of repressed, self-loathing homosexual feelings; and that many homophobes subconsciously use antigay attitudes as a smokescreen to disguise their own homosexuality.

FURTHER INFORMATION:
      Peter Tatchell of OutRage! (+44)-20-74.03.17.90
      Prof. Henry Adams: Tel. (+1)-706-542 1173; Fax (+1)-706-542 8048

Robert Mugabe
President of Zimbabwe

15 October 1997

      You are well known for your homophobic prejudice and opposition to lesbian and gay human rights.

      It may therefore interest you to learn that new research by Prof. Henry E. Adams of the University of Georgia in the USA suggests that 80 percent of homophobes get sexually aroused by gay erotic imagery, lending support to the theory that overt homophobia is often evidence of repressed homosexual feelings.

      Writing in the authoritative Journal of Abnormal Psychology (1996, Vol. 105, No. 3, pp. 440-445), Prof. Adams reported that he tested a group of men who expressed homophobic attitudes, and who said they were exclusively heterosexual and had never had any homosexual experiences or fantasies. He wired these men to a penile circumference measuring device (a plethysmograph) and showed them gay sex videos.

      Prof. Adams found that 80 percent of the homophobic men tested became sexually aroused when watching the homosexual imagery, (their sexual arousal being indicated by penile enlargement).

      His findings are consistent, he says, with theories that homophobia is a form of latent homosexuality and that antigay attitudes indicate a person's fear and loathing of their own repressed homosexual urges.

      In view of this research and your homophobic attitudes, there is now bound to be speculation about your sexuality. We are sure this speculation is without foundation but to end the innuendo that you might harbour repressed homosexual feelings, we invite you to take Prof. Adams's test.

      Under medical supervision, OutRage! is offering to wire you to a penile circumference measuring device and show you gay sex videos. If you are not gay, there will be no penile enlargement and you will have strong scientific evidence to dispel any queries about your sexual orientation.

      We invite you to contact us to make an appointment during your forthcoming visit to Britain for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

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