Psychologists tell us that homophobes, more often than not, have latent homosexual tendancies themselves. They hate that aspect of themselves, are frightened by it, are too insecure to confront in and come out of the closet, and so transfer their sefl-loathing onto gays who have found the courage to admit who they are.
To my mind, few things in this world are more sad, beligerent, hateful, and just plain scared than a closeted gay. Really sad.