Trans Visibility: A Look into Filipinos’ Attitudes Toward Transgender Individuals

People’s attitudes toward members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community have been an important issue that has persisted in society through time. Researchers have conducted numerous studies to understand members of this sexual minority group. However, studies geared toward an understanding of transgender individuals have been minimal compared to other members of the LGBT community, especially in the Philippines, where there has been increased visibility of transgender people in mainstream media. Most Filipinos still have difficulty understanding and accepting the concept of transgender as a gender identity distinct from being gay or lesbian, which are sexual orientations. Thus, this descriptive cross-sectional study aims to describe the current attitudes of heterosexual cisgender Filipinos toward transgender individuals and compare these attitudes across Filipinos of different research demographic variables. A sample of 657 Filipinos from the Philippines (282 males; 375 females, 18 to 57 years old) completed the Attitudes Toward Transgender Men and Women Scale and the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs scale. We compared hetero cisnormativity across groups on assigned sex at birth, religions, generations, and relationship statuses. Results show that cisgender heterosexual Filipinos who are males, married, Born Again Christians, and belong to Generation X still view transgender people negatively. We also compared the participants’ attitudes toward trans men versus trans women. The results showed that Filipino participants in our study had more significant anti-transgender prejudice toward trans women than trans men. We also discussed the implications of our findings and future directions for research.