US POLITICS: “Donald Trump’s Campaign Has Turned Into One Long Hate-In” / The Nation / Laila Lalami ☮

IslamophobiaThe candidate demonizes Muslims while pandering to vets.

Whether Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination, no one can tell—but what’s already clear is that he’s brought fascism back into the mainstream. At his rallies, Trump promises to make America great again by pouring scorn on women, Mexicans, African Americans, Asians, immigrants, LGBT people, the disabled, his opponents, and reporters who dare to criticize him. Every time he comes up with a new insult, his supporters whoop and cheer, seemingly confident in the belief that they are not now, nor would they ever become, one of his targets. Lately, he has taken to picking out individual protesters—a Black Lives Matter activist, a Muslim woman, a Sikh man—and offering them up to the jeering crowd, before having security escort them out.

The message is unmistakable: There is no room at these gatherings for anyone who isn’t white and Christian. A Trump rally is nothing more than a hate-in.

Continue reading . . .

ACADEMIC STUDY: “Roots of Homophobia More Pronounced in Individuals With an Unacknowledged Attraction to the Same Sex” / University of Rochester / Professor Richard Ryan ☮


Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, co-authored a [April 5, 2012] study that looks at the roots of homophobia and how this attitude is more pronounced in individuals with an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex and who grew up with authoritarian parents who forbade such desires. The study is the first to document the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear of homosexuals, including self-reported homophobic attitudes, discriminatory bias, implicit hostility towards gays, and endorsement of anti-gay policies. The study was conducted by a team from the University of Rochester, the University of Essex, England, and the University of California in Santa Barbara.

To read more about the study, please visit http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.ph…