Abstract:
This study aimed to explore and describe the fear of being perceived as gay among heterosexual
males and the cause of this fear. This also aims to describe how the fear is enforced through the
years of the men's lives. Unmarried heterosexual males were the informants in this study and are
not below twenty one years old and not older than forty years old. The sampling strategy used for
this study is convenience random sampling, where informants were collected through random
searching across Metro Manila. The sample size acquired for this study was 10 informants.
Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews. Inductive data analysis procedures
with support from certain theories were utilized. Themes were constructed from the answers
given by the informants. The results attained from the analysis categorized the causes and
triggers for the fear of being perceived as gay into two themes: the result of family and male
peers repulsion towards unmanly males, and the high value that they place on masculinity and
manhood. This high value and prestige that they place on masculinity makes men fear being
perceived as gay because it would diminish or lose their masculinity and manhood, which also
means losing their pride and prestige.
