A Study on the Coming Out Experiences and Internalized Homophobia among Filipino Gay men

Abstract

This study focused on describing the coming out experiences of Filipino gay men and assessed their psychological well-being through determined level of internalized homophobia. Moreover this study plotted the age by which various milestones of the coming out process were experienced, and ascertained the applicability of the models of stages in coming out as proposed by Western researchers in the Philippine setting. Literatures have indicated that the coming out experiences of gay men involves, namely: (1) sensitization, (2) awareness (3) acceptance and coming out; they were used for this study. The respondents were 386 Filipino gay men between the ages of 14 -39 and were recruited using convenience sampling. They were made to answer a seven part questionnaire focusing on (1) experience of the process of coming out. (2) level of “outness”, (3) sense of belongingness in the gay community, and (4) internalized homophobia. Results showed that majority of the gay samples experienced being marginalized, at one point in time, in relation to same-sex peers. For the awareness stage, findings of this study revealed that it only follows moderately those Western researches since very little of the Filipino gay samples experienced confusion, denial, shame and guilt upon awareness of one’s homosexual orientation. In the coming out and acceptance stage, findings revealed that the mean age of self-acceptance of one’s homosexuality and disclosure to other people occurs earlier compared to those gay samples from Western research. As for the assessment of level of internalized homophobia, this present study supported past researches from the West regarding internalized homophobia of gay men after coming out. Results showed that levels of internalized homophobia is associated with a gay man’s age, religion, location, level of “outness” and sense of belonging in the gay community.