Prof. Marc Eric S. Reyes, PhD, a faculty member of the Department of Psychology, presented a research paper on the attitudes of cisgender Filipinos toward members of the LGBTQ community, particularly lesbians and gays. The presentation took place during the March 21-23, 2019 Asian Conference on Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences in Tokyo, Japan.
Reyes, who co-wrote the paper with Roger D. Davis of the Institute for the Study of Personality, and UST psychology students Hanielle Anne T. Cheng, Gyra Jannin S. Cruz, Naseebah M. Muslim, Beatrice M. Salonga, Allison Nicole V. Vasquez. In their study, cisgender Filipinos were defined as those who identify with their gender based on biological sex at birth.
A total of eight hundred seventy-eight respondents from Metro Manila answered the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale and the Modern Homonegativity Scale, with homonegativity being compared across gender, age, civil status, educational attainment, and religious group.
The study found that generally, there was still a negative perception of gays and lesbians among the participating Filipino cisgenders. In particular, cisgender males, adults, married people, college graduates, and some non-Catholic religious groups were found to be less accepting of lesbians and gays.
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