THE LEVEL OF ACCEPTANCE OF LEARNERS TO THE LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL,
TRANSGENDER AND QUEER COMMUNITY
The Level Of Acceptance Of Learners To The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender
And Queer Community
Mc Lorenz B. Duco
Jiona Kaila F. David
STEM 12 - Einstein
English For Academic And Professional Purposes
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INTRODUCTION
In the recent years of our community, attitude towards the LGBTQ Community has
progressively improved. The community homosexual and non binary people have
been recognized and subject to lesser exposure to bigotry and to a better
understanding. Homosexual people have thrived in our community and had a more
comfortable state of living among heterosexuals. However, problems are still visible
within our community and negative reception from other people still propagates to
the present society. As such, agreement between the LGBTQ Community and the
rest of the community has been a subject of vague representation and limited
recognition. The understanding of the agreement of heterosexuals when living with
the LGBTQ Community is still a controversial topic as it concerns the past and
present views and opinions of people to the said community, especially in an
academic setting. As the academic area of the Philippines is the first arsenal in
giving knowledge and socialization, it is also a conduit for better understanding the
agreement of the learners when working and interacting with the LGBTQ members
in the academic setting. In the Philippines, though the LGBTQ Community is very
prominent, the agreement between certain people to the LGBTQ is still not
understood yet it is still recognizable that they still get flak from just existing in the
community.
Most people of the society keep the thought of being a member of LGBTQ or
choosing your own desired gender is a childish action. And as they choose whom
they want to be, challenges ahead will never be missed. Naveen Samala 2022
mentioned the 5 challenges faced by the LGBTQ Community namely;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Misconception about genders
Sexual Harassment
Socio-economic Discrimination
Institutional Discrimination
Societal Discrimination
As researchers read the following challenges, they can state that these can be
recognized as factors that affect their health. According to the website of Beyond
Blue (No Year), it is said that LGBTQ+ people have an increased risk of depression
and anxiety, substance abuse, self-harming, and suicidal thoughts that are found
in researched and real life experiences.
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As the issue against the appearance and actions of LGBTQ continues, the
Department of Education (DepEd) implemented the DepEd Order No. 37 series of
2017, Gender Responsive Basic Education Policy which allows all the students in
all DepEd elementary and high school to express their desired genders across all
the regions of the Philippines. In the memorandum dated June 23, 2022, DepEd
NCR Director Wilfredo Cabral reiterated the policy to promote gender
equality,equity, and sensitivity at the basic education level. (Jane Bautista 2022)
The purpose of this study is to understand if the people of the community,
particularly learners, agree with the LGBTQ people coexisting with them in the
academic and social sense. It is also to understand underlying factors such as their
views on their attitudes and participation as a member of the society and
institution treated as equals by the rest of the community regardless of genders
and stature by one person to another. Furthermore, it also gives understanding to
LGBTQ members and heterosexual people to have a better understanding of their
views of one another and to also give a possible outlook on the future of the LGBTQ
existing member of the society.
The center of this study is to determine the acceptance level of the learners towards
the LGBTQ Community within the General Flaviano Yengko Senior High School in
different terms (Attitude and Views). The results of this research will be the basis of
Yengkonian’s attitude toward the community of LGBTQ.
This study aims to answer the following questions:
1. What are the different views of learners towards the LGBTQ community in
terms of how they express themselves?
2. What are the struggles of LGBTQ learners in the school environment?
3. What is the learners’ attitude towards LGBTQ?
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This study utilizes the Quantitative Design under the Descriptive Design with the
Survey Design. Avedian A. (2014) defines that a survey is a systematic method of
information gathering conducted when certain attitudes, opinions, behaviors or
beliefs cannot be instantly observed by the observer. The researcher will use the
Survey Questionnaire through Google Forms.
It is conducted on the premises of General Flaviano Yengko Senior High School in
Barangay Pasong Buaya II, Imus Cavite. Participants will consist of twenty (20)
senior high school students, from the Grade 12- STEM Einstein in Building A,
Room-301 and Grade 12 STEM-Galileo in Building B, STEM Laboratory. The data
will be gathered through the internet on the researchers’ homes and the survey
questionnaires are sent to the respondents through messaging online application.
The researchers will formulate three (3) statements of the problems, which will be
evaluated by the teacher. After evaluation, a total of thirty (30) questions are
formulated in accordance to the three problems. Once created, a pretest will occur
and after evaluated, revised and approved, the creation of the survey through the
Google Forms will commence.
Distribution of survey was conducted on the Meta app Messenger, where Google
Forms links are sent individually to the respondents. All data from the respondents
are protected by the researchers and the data are automatically arranged in graphs
by google forms. Once the number of respondents are achieved, the summary of the
data and the creation of the final paper will begin.
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The study utilized the following instruments to conduct and conclude the study:
WI-FI /Mobile Datas
- Wi-Fi and Mobile Data plays a crucial role in both the distribution and
access of the survey and its data. The creation of the survey also relied on
the Wi-Fi to access the World Wide Web and the Internet to access the
applications needed for the study.
●
Google Forms
- The application Google Forms is used to create an online electronic type of
survey questionnaire that is accessed by the respondents through their
individual devices. It also automatically manages the data by creating
electronic graphs and scales in relation to the gathered data based on
individual questions and answers in the online survey. The links are created
to redirect respondents to the questionnaire.
●
Messenger
- The Messenger application by Meta is a communication application that is
used as the primary distributor of the survey. It is used to distribute the
links that will redirect respondents to the link for the questionnaire and also
used to communicate with the respondents in case of other questions.
●
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This section showcases the problems that the researchers have formulated.
Following are the analyses of the data gathered from the questionnaires. The
data are presented in graphs to gives emphasis on majority to easily determine
and analyze different gaps and also the absolute results collected by the
researchers on the survey they conducted. The chosen questions are those that
supported the problems that were created by the researchers and gives
emphasis in answering the problems.
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PROBLEM 1:
1. What are the different views of learners toward the LGBTQ Community in terms of
how they express themselves?
In this question, it asks the respondents if LGBTQ related activities such as
pageants and shows are acceptable for them. 90% of the 20 respondents said they
find these LGBTQ related activities acceptable and answered “Yes”. 0% of the
respondents said “No” and 10% had a more neutral stance and answered “Maybe”.
This area of the survey gives emphasis on the self expression of LGBTQ individuals
in the community as they have different forms of activities based on their interests.
An article by Hong B. (2020) based on an LGBT beauty competition “Miss Calendar
Queen” in Cambodia, is “one of its kind” and is arranged by Yosef Manabat, a
Filipino teacher, artist, performer and event planner. It is considered by many to be
the first successful beauty pageant in the country. In the article, Manabat said the
the event will help LGBTQIA+ Community to gain confidence to encourage other
event facilitators of pageants to help the community. The pageant alone is a
reasonable sign that societies have further accepted the LGBTQ activities and find
it acceptable and causes no problem at all
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This question asks the respondents if LGBTQ person dresses differently in public
places that is against the norm of dressing. 60% of the respondents said that it is
acceptable of LGBTQ individuals to dress to their liking and answered “Yes”, 35%
had a more neutral stance and answered “Maybe” and 5% of the respondents said
that they do not see it as appropriate and answered “No”.
Dressing up differently is among the different gender expressions that LGBTQ
individuals do based on their interest and also based on their genders. It is a form
of expression to which is subjected into their physical self and how they express
themselves. In a study by Gallardo-Nieto, E. M, et al. (2021) of universities in
Catalonia, Spain found that different protective and exclusionary factors are very
detrimental to the quality of life of LGBTQI+ students in the region. The lack of
guarantee of gender expression, sexual identity and sexual identity of LGBTQI+
gives a strong impact when suffering different violence and discrimination for
years. This alone shows how the different sex and gender norms propagate to the
educational institution.
PROBLEM II
2. What are the struggles of LGBTQ learners in the school environment?
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In this category, it is only limited to heterosexual respondents. It asks what are the
common struggles they saw the LGBTQ Learners’ face. As this selection is multiple
answer type, they can select more than one (1) answer. Many heterosexual students
have witnessed LGBTQ individuals facing “Bullying”, garnering a total of 13 votes
followed by Sexual Discrimination, having a total of 10 votes. A total of 5 votes on
the category that they didn't notice any struggles. Being left out got a total of 2
votes and academic inequality got 1 vote. Bullying has a very negative effect on
both the emotional and mental state of individuals. Both heterosexuals and LGBTQ
people have experienced some form of it and is very prevalent in the academic
setting within the community and has been existing for many years.
In the study by Earnshaw, V. A., et al. (2019), out of all 47 respondents consisting
of 28 LGBTQ students and 19 School Health Professionals, 82% of the LGBTQ
students reported or witnessed bullying while 68% of the School Health
Professionals have reported that they never witnessed bullying. The LGBTQ
students described hearing offensive jokes and being bullied verbally. Transgender
students faced a more violent physical assault and being the centerpoint of gender
identity bullying explicitly. LGBT students of color face both sexual discrimination
and bullying of their race alongside it.
This question asks how often do they witness LGBTQ Learners being bullied. 50%
of the respondents said that they only witness it sometimes or seldomly and
answered “Sometimes”, 30% said they “Often” witness bullying, 15% said
that they “Very Often” witness bullying and 5% said they never witness any
bullying. It is inevitable that it varies when people witness LGBTQ individuals being
bullied within the educational setting.
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In the study by by Earnshaw, V. A., et al. (2019), out of all 47 respondents
consisting of 28 LGBTQ students and 19 School Health Professionals, 82% of the
LGBTQ students reported or witnessed bullying while 68% of the School Health
Professionals have reported that they never witnessed bullying. While LGBTQ
students witnessed many forms of bullying as mentioned in the previous survey
question, in contrast, more than half of the school health professionals did not
witness any bullying at their school. Though some have not witnessed any bullying,
some indicated that they have knowledge of the rampant bullying. There are some
instances where School health professionals have reported that transgender
students experience more severe bullying in bathrooms while transgender students
did not report the extreme bullying happening in bathrooms. The school health
professionals also did not report any other forms of bullying such as misgendering
and bullying based on race or ethnicity.
PROBLEM III
3. What is the learners’ attitude towards LGBTQ?
In question 5, respondents are asked if they had any acquaintance/s, friend/s that
is/are member of the LGBTQ
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Community. 95% of the respondents answered “Yes” with 5% saying that they are
not sure. 0% answered “No”. As it is a contingency question, if the respondents
answered “Yes” they may answer question 6 but if they answer “Not sure” or “No”,
they may skip. In question 6, it asked the conditional respondents if they support
their peers being LGBTQ members. 95% said that they support them and 5% said
“Sometimes”. 0% answered “No”. Social acceptance of LGBTQ individuals has
progressively increased throughout the century. Many individuals have become
more accepting of different LGBTQ norms either on a global and national scale. In a
survey report by
Flores A. R. (2022) for the University of California Learning Institute and William
Institute that analyzes survey reports from each
country in measuring Global Acceptance Index found that acceptance LGBTI’s have
increased since 1980. Out of 175 countries, 56 experienced an increase in
acceptance while 57 countries have perceived declining acceptance while
62 countries have experienced a static or no change in acceptance.
This question talks about the learner’s comfortability when working with LGBTQ
Learners. 50% of the respondents said that they are “Comfortable” when working
with LGBTQ individuals, 45% said they are “Very Comfortable” and 5% said they
are “Tolerable” of the LGBTQ individuals working with them. In the academic
setting, many students have been comfortable in working with LGBTQ students
while some are still manifesting their unwillingness to work with them in different
forms. Many institutions struggle to help LGBTQ individuals to cope with issues
regarding supporting LGBTQ individuals within the school.
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In the report by Minero E. (2018) stated that some schools struggle to support
LGBTQ Students. LGBTQ students said that some teachers ignore bullying and did
not do anything significant to address such issues . The past research reported
that out of nearly 2500 teachers surveyed, they found that teachers are more
uncomfortable in bullying intervention due to sexual orientation and gender
identity than other bullying such as race, abilities or religion. However 83% of the
educators said that they should provide a more safe place and environment for
LGBTQ individuals but only half of the educators have taken steps to do such a
move. It is also based on the jurisdictions of the where the institution stands as in
the study the place where it is located, which is the state of Tennessee in the
United States, lack less legislations concerning LGBTQ bullying in many institution
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This part presents the conclusion derived in the conduct of the study
which is to show the Level of Acceptance of the Learners toward the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Community. It also provides
recommendations that can be pursued by government, school, and learners.
The research was conducted at General Flaviano Yengko Senior High
School. The respondents were the grade 12 from the sections Einstein and Galileo,
and below are the summary of their response anchored to the questions that was
given by the researches through online survey
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the indicated findings, the following conclusions were drawn:
1. The respondents have different views on how LGBTQ express themeselves. It
can neither be positive or negative. Majority of the respondents accepts the
members of the LGBTQ community not just as what they are, but also their
practices and activities
2. Most of the members of LGBTQ are still struggling in different ways
according to the respondents of the survey. It can happen physically or
mentally. These poor practices do not always occur, but certainly it happens
sometimes.
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3. The good attitude of the respondents towards LGBTQ showed. Most of the
respondents said that they support and are comfortable around the
members of LGBTQ. They do not have any bad intentions or unacceptable
actions towards the members.
Analysis of the result shows that after conducting the survey concerning
the level of acceptance of Yengkonians towards the community of LGBTQ, a
significant result takes place. This simply means that anchored from the votes that
the research gathered from the survey, Majority of the 20 respondents have a high
level of acceptance towards LGBTQ.
With this conclusion, it states that the well being of LGBTQ community affects how
others view them. Thus, the oppressive social environment created through
sexual/transgender identity-related stigma negatively impacts on the well being of
LGBTQ youth as stated by Cathy Kelleher 2009. The acceptance level of the
respondents is not 100% and gained only 90% to accept and support the presence
of LGBTQ, primarily the LGBTQ learners.
RECOMMENDATIONS
We hereby present our recommendations as we assess and consider our findings
and conclusions of the study.
The government may add more specific policy and projects towards the
community of LGBTQ. Supporting them as who and what they are is not
enough compared to the challenges that they face daily. Punishing or
penalizing an individual who disobeys the policy is recommendable to
protect their right. If the government implemented a policy for this matter,
then we suggest that a school should have a policy too. Education is filled
with different identities who desire to learn and achieve. But their
achievements are nothing if they are being harassed that causes their
struggle in the school premises. Learners in the school must also learn on
how to be respectful, disciplined and responsible in terms of their attitude
and views. As we review the result of the survey, the whole vote contains a
different view which opposes the identity of LGBTQ. We recommend that
LGBTQ community shall be tackled in the early level of education to avoid
the misconception of the next generation.
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References
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Bautista, J. (2022, June 30). LGBTQIA+ students gain some ground via the
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