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CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

In the past decades, there has been growing attention to the LGB (Lesbian, Gay,

and Bisexual) they are more likely to experience intolerance, discrimination, harassment

and the threat of violence due to their sexual orientation (Jajal, K. 2015)As generations

have passed, the acceptance of LGB have noticeably increased overtime. They have been

welcomed by many and their rights are also greatly established (The Williams Institute

2018). Their presences are also celebrated; they even have a month long celebration just

for them, which is what we call the pride month. The LGB community also has their own

flag, which is the rainbow flag that symbolizes their freedom in our society. Since the

LGB have been socially accepted, they have been having their own reputations

nowadays; they are even looked up to by many. Some members of the LGB community

are famous entertainers, celebrities and entrepreneurs. The LGB community even have

their own rights established for them, which is the Anti-SOGI discrimination act.But just

because the group gained legal rights doesn’t mean years of oppression have been

washed away, especially since homophobia is still alive and flourishing in spite of vast

gains (Stafford 2016).

That is why the researchers of this study chose to conduct this topic, because the

researchers wanted to know how our society truly comprehends the LGB community and

how it impacts the lives of its members. We want to know how the LGB community

made way for them to be accepted as part of the society and how the society really
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perceives them. Also, we want this to be an eye-opener, inspiration and reference to the

students, LGB community, future readers and researchers.

Background of the Study

"Average levels of acceptance for LGB people and their rights have increased

globally since 1980, but acceptance has become more polarized", according to new

research from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. The first report,

“Polarized Progress,” found that 80 countries (57 percent) experienced increases in

LGBT acceptance, 46 countries (33 percent) experienced a decline and 15 countries (11

percent) experienced no change, Moreau (2018).

According to Dowd (2018), in a series of new studies, researchers developed a

groundbreaking new measure of LGB inclusion, called the "Global Acceptance Index",

141 countries on their relative level of social acceptance of LGB people and rights was

ranked. Societal attitudes toward homosexuality vary greatly in different cultures and

different historical periods, as do attitudes toward sexual desire, activity and relationships

in general. All cultures have their own values regarding appropriate and inappropriate

sexuality; some sanction same-sex love and sexuality, while others may disapprove of

such activities in part. As with heterosexual behaviour, different sets of prescriptions and

proscriptions may be given to individuals according to their gender, age, social status or

social class. Homophobic attitudes in society can manifest themselves in the form of anti-

LGB discrimination, opposition to LGB rights, anti-LGB hate speech and physical

attacks targeting (presumed) LGB persons.

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LGB people are now more societally accepted than ever before, according to a

recent survey done by Norc at the University of Chicago, with Americans “dramatically”

moving toward largely accepting LGB people, something many of us could never have

imagined before. As time goes by, there are a lot of changes in our society that LGB are

now accepted and become the center because of their doings on our society.

Statement of the Problem

This study was performed to investigate and to gather data and information

regarding on the researcher’s study about the Perspective of Senior High School Students

on LGB Discrimination.

The researchers are focused mainly on question that they would answer

throughout the process of investigating, studying and gathering of data, the question

formulated is:

1. What are the perceptions of lesbian, gay and bisexual OLOPSCians on

acceptance?

2. How do lesbians, gay and bisexual OLOPSCians feel towards discrimination?

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Significance of the Study

This study was conducted by the researchers to find out what exactly OLOPSC

SHS LGBstudents’ thinks about the LGB community and whether they accept them as a

part of the society. The result of this study would be beneficial to the following:

To the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals

Through the help of this research, lesbians, gays and bisexuals will now

be seen differently by the society.

To the Teachers

Through this study, teachers will be able to see the lgb members

differently and they will be able to understand them and see the things that they

can do to help the lgb to be accepted in the community.

To the School

With the findings of this study, they will be able to accept and open their

school for the LGB and make it easier for the lgb members to come out and go to

school everyday.

To the Future Researchers

Through this study, researchers will help and guide some of the members

of LGB and give them some advice so that they will not be ashamed of

themselves.
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Scope and Delimitation

This study is focused mainly on the theperceptions on acceptance of grade 11

Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual OLOPSCians in Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College

including the factors affecting the sexuality and their personality as a person and what

LGB members has done to be accepted in our society.

The research was conducted at Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College (OLOPSC)

Marikina on school year 2018-2019, of which, the chosen participants came from the

different sections of grade 11 at the Senior High School department. The data gathered

served as a baseline for the researchers to know how the experiences and opinions of the

informants were divided and different to one another.

Definition of Terms

Bisexual - Of, relating to, or characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to members of

both sexes.

Comprehend - to grasp the nature, significance.

Conduct - to direct or take part in the operation or management of: conduct an

experiment, conduct a business, and conduct an investigation.

Discrimination – prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment.

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Eye-opener - something startling, surprising, or enlightening.

Gay – of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward

another of the same sex.

Lesbian –a woman who is a homosexual.

OLOPSC SHS – Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College Senior High School.

LGB - LGB, or GLB, is an initial that stands for lesbian, gay, and bisexual. In use since

the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initials LGB, which was used to replace

the term gay in reference to the LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late

1980s.

OLOPSC – Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College.

Pride Month – The month of June was chosen for LGBT Pride Month to commemorate

the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. As a result,

many pride events are held during this month to recognize the impact

LGBT people have had in the world.

Society - companionship or association with one's fellows: friendly or intimate

intercourse: COMPANY.
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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discussed literature review which provides supporting and empirical

studies related to “The Perceptions on Acceptance of Grade 11 Lesbian, Gay and

Bisexual OLOPSCians in Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College.”

Bullying and Discrimination Experienced by the LGB Community

In the Philippines, LGB members are tolerated but not accepted (Cristobal, 2017)

“It’s okay that you’re lesbian as long as you’re not the partner of my daughter.”, “It’s

okay that you’re gay as long as you’re not working at my company.” These are the

sentiments that members of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) community often receive

(Cristobal, 2017).

LGB members in the Philippines often hear out discriminating words from their

fellow countrymen, they are being tolerated but they were never accepted. It seems like

that in our country, members of LGB has no right. Especially if they have created their

own “rainbow family” If the partner dies, the rights go straight to the family and not the

partner. If their children get sick, they have no right to bring them to the hospital and be

asked for a medical permission. In workplaces, they have no rights to work, just because

they are lesbian, gay or bisexual. And oftentimes, gays are only being referred to as

comedy bar clowns. (Cristobal, 2017.) Because today, if cultural forces generally
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acknowledge a person as lesbian, gay or bisexual, it means that they do not fit in any

category in the society.

Laws and Policies Related to LGB Discrimination

In recent years, the Philippines has enacted ground breaking laws and policies

designed to protect youth from bullying in schools and other places in the community,

such as the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression Equality (SOGIE) or

also known as House Bill No. 4982 (RG Cruz, 2017). Despite these formal protections,

however, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGB) students continue to be bullied

and excluded in schools because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Over the

past decades, the nation has made unprecedented progress toward LGB equality. But to

date, neither the federal government nor most states have explicit statutory

nondiscrimination laws protecting people on basis of sexual orientation and gender

identity.

Anti-gay attitudes have focused heavily on heterosexuals versus non-

heterosexuals, with very little research delving into the differences within those non-

heterosexuals groups. Gender and sexual orientation play an important role in our

everyday lives, although the legal system has made a lot of progress toward equality for

women and LGB individuals. Philippine law provides protections against discrimination

and exclusion in schools, lawmakers and school administrators need to take steps to

ensure they are fully implemented.

Lawmakers in the Philippines have recognized that bullying in secondary schools

is a problem and have taken important steps to address it, Human Rights Watch said. In
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2013, the Philippine Congress passed an anti-bullying law and the Department of

Education issued regulations prohibiting bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and

gender identity. During the 2016 presidential campaign, too, Rodrigo Duterte vocally

condemned bullying and discrimination against LGB people.

There are different laws and policies enacted. Authorities are taking charge and

making steps to promote student safety, equality, and access to education in schools. The

strongest relationship between LGB acceptance and LGBT policies occurs within country

contexts where public opinion impacts public policy. In democracies, LGB social

acceptance is strongly associated with legal inclusiveness.

LGB BEHAVIOR

One of the factors that affects the treatment of a person to a LGB member is their

attitude and behavior. The studies on information behavior aim to know why people

need, seek and use information, both in their working place and in their daily life. (Fisher,

Erdelez&Mckechnie, 2005). Desire, behavior and identity are distinct, and they do not

always overlap.

In the United States, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual (LGB) individuals lives, personal and

professional within the context of historical and current legal discrimination.

All students including members of non-dominant groups, bring with them a

multiplicity of experiences, talents and goals that can, and indeed should, become an

essential part of the total educational environment. Nieto & Bode (2008). Collaboration

among researchers from various disciplines open new spaces for exploration and

understanding of an expanding diversity of students.

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In a nutshell, Philippines seems like a country that is open to the LGB community

but in reality the LGB community are only tolerated but not accepted. And there are still

too many issues and problems left about it to be called as a LGB-friendly nation. Many

people already accepted that 10% of our population is composed of the LGB society, but

most of the society still do not accept them nor treat them right. The LGB community is

still being treated unfairly, and still is not fully accepted as normal human beings. The

said community is suffering in many aspects such as in discrimination, being denied of

health cares, and being denied of their rights. But our country and our law are making

ways to improve the lives of the LGB by protecting their rights and acknowledging them

as normal people of the society. We are continually making a progress but we can say

that we are still too far from being a nation that fully accepts and understands the LGB

community.
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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter of the study presents the research design, research locale,

participants, instruments, and data gathering procedures used and followed for the

completion of this research work.

Research Design

The qualitative research design and phenomenological method was used for this

research. These methods were used for the researchers to precisely describe the study and

illustrate the state of the partakers involved in the study. Qualitative research design,

according to Marquez-Fong and Tigno (2016), is design that “can be more complex and

varied, with new designs being developed, old designs being revised, and designs being

mixed and matched” while phenomenological method, as stated by Diaz (2015) “refers to

the study of personal experience and requires a description or interpretation of the

meanings of phenomena experienced by participants in an investigation. The research

design is qualitative and phenomenological because it will be the most appropriate

method as it describes the phenomenon currently happening to the lesbian, gay, bisexual

and transgender senior high school students in our school.

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Research Locale

The research was conducted in Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College (OLOPSC),

a private non-sectarian educational institution located in #30 General Ordoñez Street,

Concepcion Dos, Marikina City. This was chosen by the researchers as their research

locale due to convenience sake– the locale provides a huge population of participants for

the study because it has LGB members and in order to have a smooth distribution of

questionnaires on every respondent per section.

Participants

The participants in this study are the Senior High school students of Our Lady of

Perpetual Succor College, specifically those who are part of the LGB community. A

purposive sampling was used in order to determine who will be the participants in this

study.

Research Instruments

The researchers will conduct a questionnaire survey for this study. The

questionnaire is divided into two parts: first part is the respondent’s profile and the

second part is the survey questions. The questions will mainly focus on The Perceptions

on Acceptance of Grade 11 Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual OLOPSCians in Our Lady of

Perpetual Succor College.

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Data Gathering Procedure

For the data gathering procedure, the researchers received and followed the

instructions for the distribution of the survey questionnaire from their research teacher.

The survey questionnaires were to be distributed only during recess and lunch breaks of

the selected respondents. The researchers coordinated with the class presidents of the

selected respondents and were given a day to accomplish the distributed survey. In the

next day, the researchers coordinated again with the said class presidents for the

collection of surveys. After receiving, the researchers started tallying and summarizing

the responses per questions of the data followed.

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CHAPTER IV

PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS

This chapter discusses about how the data was presented, interpreted and analyzed

from the gathered data from the respondents.

The Perception of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College Senior High School

Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual MembersRegarding to Acceptance in the Society

The first statement of the problem assumes to determine the Perception of Our

Lady of Perpetual Succor College Senior High School lesbian, gay and bisexual students

about the society acceptance. According to responses, it was stated that most of the them

are now accepted, supported and loved by the society. But there are some matters that are

still against them, like church and beliefs. Some said that they accept the LGB because

we are all children of God and everyone deserves to be loved and accepted. Regardless of

that, some disagrees because they say that the Christianity only has two genders: man and

woman as a children of God. But for the other side that favors them they are accepted

because of their talents and contributions to the community.

VERBAL discrimination Towards Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual

The second theme discovered by the researchers is the verbal discrimination. The

informant responses show that most senior high school students were abused verbally by

being part of LGB community. The types of verbal abuse they experienced are verbal

abuse disguised as jokes accusing, judging and criticizing threatening and name calling

and there is more of it this were just the majorities that are really experienced by LGB.
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Acceptance of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual in Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College

Community

The second statement of the problem is meant to find out if the lesbian, gay and

bisexuals are now fully accepted, if yes, how they became accepted in the society. And if

no, why. Some say that they became accepted because people nowadays are open-minded

and comfortable with them that’s why they fully adapted and accepted the LGB

members. But some says that LGB members are not yet fully accepted because of many

reasons and instances such as the church, parent’s and society’s preferences. It is also

stated in the responses that they still experience discrimination and abuse because of the

mentioned reasons.

Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College Senior High School Students Feelings about

their Sexuality.

On the third statement, we asked the respondents to answer if they have ever been

ashamed about their sexuality, 11% answered yes and 89% answered no. It is therefore

concluded that the members of LGB community are now but not yet fully accepted in the

society. Majority of lesbians, gays and bisexuals does not feel ashamed about being who

or what they are.

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CHAPTER V

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter presents the findings from the collected data and recommendation for the

people involved and significant in this study. This chapter also presents the conclusions

that is derived from the data and findings that has been gathered all throughout the

research.

Summary of Findings

From the research that has been conducted, it can be observed that the

perspectives of the students are diverse. Some agreed and accepted the Lesbian, Gay and

Bisexual society and some are still not favor of them. Most of the students stated that the

LGB society are now accepted because of their talents, contributions to the society and

just because of who they simply are. Some say that the LGB society are not yet accepted

because the church says so, or because of the preferences of their parents. The acceptance

of the LGB society is still a hot topic in our community, there are still many opinions and

perceptions about them. The results of this study can still be changed in the future and

therefore this research can be used as reference by future researchers and people that

experience these social phenomena.

Conclusion

The majority of the respondent answers stated that LGB community is almost

accepted in our society. They only experience harassment or discrimination rarely in the

community. The opinion of the people about Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual is still an
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argument up to this day, but through the years, maybe the community will be fully free to

express their true colors because the process of acceptance is almost done. But even

though there are some who doesn’t favor them, the good thing is that the LGB

community is slowly receiving the rights they should possess.

Recommendation

The following are the recommendations that the researchers provide for the

significant figures involved in the study.

For the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals, use this study to be an inspiration and

motivation to your daily lives. Be open and do not let anyone hinder you from being who

you are. Continue your passion and be an inspiration to others.

For the teachers, accept students as who they are, treat them fairly and respect

their choice. Ensure and support them in their growing talents and protect them too if

ever they experience any discrimination. Do not be the source of the discrimination that

they experience. Make way for them to be understood and accepted by others, by having

open forums or giving them opportunities to speak up for themselves.

For the school, conduct seminars so that students and teachers can have a lot of

knowledge about members of the LGB community and to avoid the things that are

offensive to this member of the community.

To the future researchers, use this study to be a reference and to learn more

about the LGB, and on your next study expand your study not just to lesbians, gays and

bisexuals but to all the genders available. To the society, be more open minded and give
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the LGB a reasonable treatment as how straights were treated. To the friends, family, and

parents of LGB members, be more supportive and understanding to your child that is part

of the LGB community. Accept, love and support them for who they are, protect them

from discrimination. Spend time with them more and give the support they need, whether

it may be physical, emotional and even financial support.

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