According to Osho, hatred of homosexuals arises chiefly from repressed same‑sex desires and from fear of those who are different. Hatred is love turned upside‑down—a defensive trick to keep forbidden longings and doubts out of awareness. Feeling insecure, people build a wall of hate to protect a fragile identity. This harms the hater; freedom comes by dropping fear and repression and settling in one’s being.
We hate gays because we’re scared of our own hidden urges and of people who aren’t like us, and that fear ends up hurting us.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, why do I hate homosexuals?
The injured fruit looked up at the big brute and said sarcastically, "Tourist!" It is not only that YOU hate the homosexual, the homosexual also hates the heterosexual; he also thinks that he does not belong to him. We have created unnecessary labels. We have put labels on every man, and not one label -- a thousand and one labels on every man. Remove all the labels! Man is simply man -- homosexual, heterosexual, autosexual, doesn't matter -- man is simply man. Respect man, love man. Respect his individuality, respect his differences. And that is possible only if you respect your individuality. That is possible only if you are grounded in your own being and you are unafraid. I would like a world utterly fearless, where all labels can be removed. Once it happened: I entered an air-conditioned train compartment in Bombay. The only passenger in my cabin immediately fell…
Question: OSHO, I AM HOMOSEXUAL. WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT IT? My fundamental principle is acceptance -- tathata. Whatsoever is the situation, you accept it. From there things can begin. Don't reject it. It is out of rejection that the problem has arisen, so only with acceptance... Relax into it and you will be surprised. If you can accept it without any guilt, slowly slowly your homosexuality will turn into heterosexuality again. Why? -- because guilt is also a religious phenomenon, and homosexuality too. They are joined together, they are tied together. If you go on feeling guilty, you will remain homosexual. Drop the guilt, accept it. Nothing is wrong, just you are carrying the whole ugly past of humanity. What can you do? You have come a little late, people have preceded before. They have dirtied the whole beach. So we have to clean it.
A friend has asked: Osho, you said that love is necessary for hatred. But many times, just on seeing a man with whom we have no acquaintance, we feel hatred; we don’t even feel like meeting him or talking to him. So in such moments, is hatred possible without love?
And there is another reason, deeper than this; keep it in mind. You often hate precisely those things—those qualities in others—which you hate in yourself. This is a little deeper; it is a layer even deeper than the previous one. When, suddenly on seeing a man, hatred arises in your mind, investigate whether this is not a part of self-condemnation. For what you find bad in yourself you will also find bad in the other. This is projection. What you wish were not in you—when you see it in another—hatred arises. Hence every expansion of hatred is, somewhere deep down, a part of self-hatred. Understand this. You do not want to be angry, yet anger happens. And you hate anger. So whenever you see a glimmer of anger in someone, hatred will arise. You do not want to steal, and yet you steal. So whenever you see a thief somewhere,…
Beloved master, I am homosexual. I feel terribly oppressed and stricken by the stigma of homosexuality. It seems false to me to come here to find a way to come closer to myself and at the same time not to have the courage to show myself the way I am. Then I want to resign and return home so that I don't have to think about it any longer. What can I do?
You meditate -- homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual.... You meditate. You become more still and more silent. You create inner emptiness. You become more transparent, and then things will start changing. You will be able to see what you are doing to yourself. If it is right you will go on doing it with more joy, with more totality, with more intensity, with more passion. If it is wrong it will simply drop, just like dead leaves falling from a tree. So I cannot suggest any specific method because to me all the problems are arising because we have become minds and we have forgotten that deep down there is a space within us which can be called no-mind. Entering that space, no-mind, will give you perspective, vision, clarity. Meditate. Sit silently watching your thoughts -- homosexual, heterosexual, whatsoever they are, it doesn't matter. You watch, you become the witness. Slowly slowly,…
Osho, you say that love and hate are one; but I see more hate in the world than love. At the same time, you say that enlightenment is neither love nor hate. Are you speaking of two different qualities of love? How does this fit with your message of love?
And it is only you who can find what is right for you and what is wrong for you. Then keep the thread of awareness running through all your actions, and in your life you will not find any hate, any anger, any jealousy. Not that you have dropped them, not that you have repressed them, not that you have somehow got rid of them, not that you have practiced doing something against them. No, you have not done anything, you have not even touched them. This is the beauty of awareness: it never represses anything; but there are things which simply melt in the light of awareness and change. And there are things which become more solid, more integrated, more profound, more strong: love, compassion, kindness, friendliness, understanding. All the religions up to date have been focusing people's minds on actions; and labeling -- this is bad, this is…