“Jay Leno apologized yesterday to Gay Nation, which has been up in arms ever since the ‘Tonight Show’ host asked guest Ryan Phillippe, who played a homosexual on ‘One Life to Live’ many moons ago, to give him his ‘gayest look.’ Jay’s request fueled plenty of Internet fury, and yesterday GLAAD condemned the Andover homey’s remarks. ‘Under the guise of comedy, the talk-show host is demonstrating a lack of respect for the gay community,’ GLAAD’s statement read. Jay did the mea culpa thing, saying he ‘certainly didn’t mean any malice’ with his remarks. ‘I agree it was a dumb thing to say, and I apologize.’” — Boston Herald (US)

Even if you don’t give much of a hoot about Jay Leno, it’s hard not to be fascinated by some of the backlash against his homophobic comments (which you can watch here.) In particular, Violet Blue wrote a great piece at the San Francisco Chronicle titled “Hot Gay Sex is for Homophobes.” To turn the tables on Leno, Blue wittily draws on a scientific study that sought to explore the question “Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?” Here’s the abstract:

The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.

One line is worth repeating: Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. However, once you get done saying “Take that, Leno” to yourself, you can’t help but wonder… Is it in fact common that someone should desire the thing that, at least publicly, they affect to hate? For example, California recently passed a law criminalizing necrophilia. Would every lawmaker who claimed to be disgusted by necrophilia be secretly aroused by snuff porn?

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