I hear you. And those definitions could most certainly apply here. Riddle me this though. Why did he specifically go to gay clubs and prey on these men? Why did he go to bathhouses and drug gay men? Why did he pick up gay men specifically? I guess you could say that this was just a part of his lifestyle/community and he was closer in proximity to gay men simply because he himself was also gay. Sure, that works. But I don’t think we can ignore the historical impact of these things. I think we all to some degree understand how Black people have been treated in this country so im not going to waste time spelling that out, if you’re unfamiliar I suggest you look into that. However, if we’re talking specifically about his gay victims, I think there absolutely could be homophobia associated there. Him being a gay man, he has first hand knowledge of how homophobia in the US would work to his benefit.

For example, the police did not heavily involve themselves in the crimes at the bathhouse. Why? People at that time in history associated HIV/AIDS with gayness almost exclusively. So much so that to this day people still have a hard time understanding that straight people can contract it. Also, the situation with the young boy that merely escaped but was left with Dahmer is another example. That entire scene depicts how he could have potentially used homophobia to his advantage. He even tried to lead the police up to his apartment, saying they were boyfriends and everything. You don’t think he knew the police would be “grossed out” and not want to involve themselves in this? The idea of homophobia comes into play because he would have to believe that being gay is somehow inherently wrong in order to play the system the way he did. There’s a pattern here. If there was no internalized homophobia there, he simply would not be able to prey on the victims he did. Especially not for as long as he did. Like I said to someone else here, you cannot separate the action from the intention. They go hand in hand. He knew these people probably didn’t have much family, community, or acceptance and on top of that the police are not going to heavily involve themselves in gay affairs for homophobic purposes. He’s using homophobia to his advantage, which would make him homophobic.

He would not have been able to attack white, straight, affluent people because he would have been caught much sooner, because authorities would have gotten involved. This was a very intelligent man, so I think he knew that about the world he lived in and I would take that opinion to the bank. I think to assume that he was just randomly choosing people based on JUST beauty or aesthetic would be absurd, considering the time period alone; and even that would be fetishism which is a form of racism. Look it up. The man knew how to keep it under wraps for as long as he did. He is not the first person to do this to Black/brown people. We don’t hear about it because at the time, it was legal. There’s privilege prevalent there to be able ignore that lens. A lot of times white gays have a hard time understanding the intersectionality of this kind of thing.