BEYOND THE BINARY BOUNDARIES: FILIPINO NON-MONOSEXUALITY

IDENTITY EXPERIENCES ON THE CONTEXT

OF RELIGION AND FAMILY

A Masteral Thesis Proposal

Presented to
The Faculty of Graduate School
SAN BEDA COLLEGE ALABANG
Muntinlupa City

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS IN PSYCHOLOGY

Lanz Romulo N. Deiparine

NOVEMBER 2018
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction 04

Background of the Study 06

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework 09

Statement of Purpose 20

Significance of the Study 21

Scope and Delimitation 23

Definition of Terms 24

II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

The Philippine Social Norms and Values 25

The LGBT+ Community in the Philippines 30

The Bisexual Umbrella and Non-Monosexuality 31

Family Interactions 42

Religion and Religious Upbringing 47

Relevance to the Present Study 48

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CHAPTER PAGE

III METHOD AND PROCEDURE

Research Design 56

Sample and Sampling Techniques 58

Research Instruments 60

Data Gathering Procedures 60

Analysis of Data 62

IV REFERENCES 66

V APPENDICES

Guide Questions 73
 CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

While there has been growing support for the Lesbian and Gay individuals

in the LGBT+ community in the Philippines, what can be said about the B for

Bisexuality in the said community? What can also be said about those who are

hidden behind other more known identities because of the lack of awareness and

or interest? With growing support and positive attitudes towards the tolerance

and acceptance of homosexuality in various societies such as in the Philippines,

there are still issues with the accepting and understanding over other non-

heterosexual identities that continue to exist in the LGBT+ communities (Aria,

2018; dela Cruz Tan, 2013; Tubeza, 2013). Majority of the time, bisexuality or

other non-monosexual identities are caught in between the heterosexual and

homosexual communities and are contesting the authenticity of their identities,

leaving the sexualities in question at times at a state of ambiguity. This would

also pertain to those who sexual identify as pansexual, queer or fluid; these types

of sexual identities are mainly known as non-monosexual.

Although there have been studies on the sexual identity that is bisexuality,

these still fail to fully grasp other non-monosexual identities since other non-

monosexual identities are categorized or grouped under the umbrella term of

bisexuality; evidently, making the term Bisexual Umbrella (Flanders, 2017). The

term bisexual umbrella has since been used in both positive and negative

connotations due to how it encompasses other non-monosexual identities under

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the more commonly known identity that is bisexuality (Flanders, Lebreton,

Robinson, Bian, & Caravaca – Morera, 2016; Flanders, 2017). While this term

may come as a form of comfort for the other non-monosexual identities, it can

also come in a negative context as it can oversimplify the other non-monosexual

identities by placing them under bisexuality as a whole. The overall lack of

awareness of the bisexuals and the bisexual umbrella continue to promote

erasure and prejudice, and in societies where there are still issues with accepting

non-heterosexual communities and identities it becomes an even bigger issue for

non-monosexuals to find a footing in even the LGBT+ community (Flanders,

2017; Galupo, Ramirez & Pulice-Farrow, 2016).

Regarding the studies that have studied on the bisexual umbrella, they

have established that bisexuals and other non-monosexuals do have differing or

unique experiences than those who identify as gay or lesbian. These studies

have shown that while bisexuals and other non-monosexuals have experienced

stigma and prejudices from the majority of society being heterosexual, there have

been many occurrences of the homosexual community also contesting their

identities’ authenticity. This further leads to unique forms of stigma and

prejudices, mainly in a form commonly known as Bisexual Erasure, which

rationalizes or fully ignores the bisexuality as an identity (Yoshino, 2000). This

implication would further erase the other less known non-monosexual identities.

This becomes a point in where some researchers who have studied up upon the

experiences of bisexuals and other non-monosexuals notice the recurring pattern

of these individuals as having to actually contest the idea of monosexuality and

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monosexism (Dolan, 2013; Roberts, Horne, & Hoyt, 2015). Monosexuality is

clearly defined as the romantic and or sexual attraction to only one particular sex

or gender; this term would only view heterosexuality and homosexuality as clear

identities. This concept of only accepting one gender or sex for attraction affects

not only individuals who identify under in the non-monosexual spectrum, but

even those who identify in the asexuality spectrum.

While there have been some studies on the experiences of bisexual and

other non-monosexual individuals, they mainly pertain to just their general

experiences. These general experiences may dabble on certain factors that

affect these individuals, mainly interpersonal and intrapersonal factors. There

have been multiple studies that focused on gay and lesbian experiences that

specified on certain factors that entailed their own unique experiences from the

heterosexual communities. These factors were mainly social factors such as

family, workplace and religion. In countries like the Philippines, many of these

factors weigh heavily on the individuals due to their societies highly regarding the

two social factors of family and religion (Santos & Marchadesch, 2017; Tarroja,

2010). Various researches have since established that these two factors heavily

affect the lived experiences of gay and lesbian individuals, but not many studies

have done research on individuals who are non-monosexual such as bisexuals,

pansexuals, queer, and fluid.

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Background of the Study

As someone who sexually identifies as a bisexual man, the researcher

has always been interested in understanding the experiences of living with that

type of non-monosexual identity. The researcher, having gone through his own

path of understanding his identity as something not heterosexual nor

homosexual, eventually learned about bisexuality and other non-heterosexual

identities that comprise the LGBT+, and with the growing support for this

community in the Philippines, the researcher saw this as a prime opportunity for

people of other sexual identities to be more open and live their experiences for

the better. The researcher also understands that his situation can be seen as

more fortunate than others as his family has been overwhelmingly supportive and

understanding of the idea of him being bisexual despite being raised in Roman

Catholic household. This support and understand helped the researcher reach

the resolution of conflict between his sexual identity and the view of religion, and

has since been more open-minded about his faith. Not everyone can be as

fortunate. The researcher understands that not everyone who identify as bisexual

or other non-monosexual identities do not get the same amount of support and

conflict resolution when it comes to family and or religion, and that is what will

drive the researcher to wanting to do a study on the lived experiences of Filipino

individuals who sexually identify as non-monosexual in the context of both

religion and family as two main social factors.

The researcher wishes to learn more about the lived experiences of other

Filipino individuals who sexually identify as non-monosexual (Flanders, 2017).

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From his readings, it is clear that while the Philippine society has been seen with

more positive attitudes towards the LGBT+ community, it seems to still be seen

as more of tolerance than full acceptance; there are still certain stereotypes seen

and expected to be seen in individuals who are within the LGBT+ community and

a majority are still unsure whether to give certain rights such as same-sex

marriage (Bernal, 2013; Salaverria, 2018; Tubeza, 2013). While a global survey

by the Pew Research Center conducted in 2013 saw the Philippines as one of

most LGBT+ friendly nations of the world, a recent survey from the Social

Weather Stations showed that 61% of Filipinos are still against the idea of a civil

union between people of the same sex (Social Weather Stations, 2018).

While those problems do become a point for people to continue their

spread of awareness for changes in the Philippine society against more

traditional heteronormative views, there is still a need to spread awareness

regarding the ambiguity of Filipino bisexuals and other non-monosexual

identities. The idea of bisexuality and other non-monosexual identities seem to

still be a recent issue as many people in the society see bisexuality and other

non-monosexual identities as confusing and or not following the monosexual

views of sexual orientation. Many view bisexuality as a confusing and or

promiscuous phase in between transitioning from heterosexual to homosexual or

vice versa (dela Cruz Tan, 2013). Some studies on the experiences of these

stereotypes from bisexuals prove that bisexuality is a clearly defined sexual

identity and more than just their stereotypes (Flanders, Lebreton, Robinson,

Bian, & Caravaca – Morera, 2016; Galupo, Ramirez, & Pulice-Farrow, 2016).
 9

While there have been these studies, they are still focused mainly on just the

general experiences of bisexuals, and even more so only about bisexual lived-

experiences. Various recommendations have been ascertained to include other

non-monosexual identities as to further promote that identities such as

pansexual, queer, and fluid are just as valid as bisexuality is in the LGBT+

community. With the studies on lived-experiences, they do not fully specify on

certain factors such as family and or religion that have long been the topic of

homosexuals’ lived experiences in the coming out process and integration or

disassociation with their fate. Furthermore, while a study has been done with

Filipino bisexuals on their experiences, it was still general enough that it did not

tackle too much on those two social factors (Ocampo & Alonso-Balmonte, 2016).

The objective of this study is to explore the lived experiences of Filipino

individuals who identify as non-monosexual with regards to family and religion;

family being family relations and interactions while religion pertaining to religious

views and religious upbringing.

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework

In this study, the researcher will discuss the necessary theories and or

concepts to guide and solidify the development of the present study. Based from

the various readings and studies the researcher has read regarding bisexuality

and other non-monosexual identities, the researcher had noticed that in many of

those studies tend to trend or focus more on the conflicting lived experiences of

the individuals who sexually identify as bisexual and or non-monosexual. The

 10

researcher does not wish to state that all currently present researches and

studies have only focused on the negative aspects of the lived experiences of

bisexuals and other non-monosexual identities categorized under the bisexual

umbrella, but the researcher has found the pattern of research interesting.

One of the various theories used by the studies is Meyer’s minority stress

theory (2003). Meyer’s minority stress model was proposed by Ilan H. Meyer to

understand the term minority stress. Minority stress is described as how people

who are from minority or marginalized groups that are stigmatized by the larger

society, causing these people to have higher prevalence for chronic stress and

vulnerability to poorer mental and physical health (Holman, 2018; Meyer, 2003;

Meyer, 2015). This minority stress theory or model was mainly conceptualized in

the context of the marginalized group that is the LGBT+ community, as due to

how in many societies there are still heavily prevalent norms of heteronormativity

that play in their culture and have individuals of the LGBT+ in their society having

to go through prejudice, discrimination, and stigma. In the minority stress theory,

there are three primary principles that make the basis of what the theory centers

around (Holman, 2018; Meyer, 2003; Meyer, 2015). The first principle is that an

individual’s minority status, their sexual identity being non-heterosexual in this

context or non-monosexual in the context of the present study, will lead to more

distal stressors. The second principle is similar to the first but focuses more on

how the sexual minority identity of the individual will lead to more proximal

stressors. The third principle is the most understood of the model for it focuses

on how because of these types of stressors, people who are part of the minority
 11

group in sexual identity will undergo stress to the point where they may go

through physical and or mental health issues, typically associated with chronic

levels of stress and anxiety.

In further understanding the minority stress theory, one must understand

distal and proximal stressors and what they are exactly in the context for the

sexual minority. In a more recent article in 2015 by the conceptual framework

creator himself Ilan H. Meyer and a thorough study by Elizabeth Holman (2018),

they elaborated on the stressors and how these apply to the sexual minority

group the model was made for. Distal stressors are those that happen externally

and objectively with regards to an individual’s marginalization. This would pertain

to how other people, mainly from the majority that is heteronormative, would

directly or indirectly oppose the individual’s sexual identity for it being non-

heterosexual. Mainly this is clearly depicted in verbal and even physical displays

of harassment or attacks. Other more subtle forms of distal stressors can be from

the very heteronormative system the majority of the society operates on; these

can involve the belief systems that are viewed as conventional and traditional

mostly found in the setting of how a family should be structured and how religion

upholds those views. These more subtle acts of distal stressors are commonly

known as micro-aggressions. These are crucial for they may seem insignificant

but for the individual’s sexual identities in which these micro-aggressions target

or heavily imply upon can accumulate into the chronic stresses distal stressors in

the theory can cause. The other form of stressors seen in Meyer’s theory is the

proximal stressors. While distal is externally found and objectively presented to

 12

the individual, proximal stressors are more subjective as it happens internally for

the individual. Meyer also made three distinct process of internal stigma that

individuals may feel with regards to the proximal stressors. The first is known as

internalized homophobia. Because of hearing, seeing and experiencing the

various distal stressors the individual may start internalizing those beliefs onto

themselves and have it alter their own views over their own sexual identity and

non-heterosexual identities as a whole. The second known internal process for

proximal stressors is the expectations and fear of rejection. Even when there are

no overt discrimination or distal stressors that may cause these feelings,

individuals who are in the sexual minority group may still feel the stress akin to

the stigma and prejudice that comes with being in the marginalized group; these

become forms of anxiety and doubt, and even an anticipation for future distal

stressors such as rejection, harassment and even micro-aggressions from within

different social contexts such as at work or at school. The third and final internal

process found in proximal stressors is concealment. This would revolve around

the individual and their openness in disclosing their sexual orientation or identity.

In this theory, this internal process for proximal stressor can also act as a form of

coping mechanism for it helps to know if concealing one’s sexual identity would

be a beneficial part in the individuals’ various social contexts, such as at work.

But while it may seem slightly positive, concealment still forces the individual to

not fully express and integrate their true sexual identity and that would make

them feel impersonal and rueful over the sacrifice for the sake of whatever social

contexts the need of concealment was subjectively necessary.

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In the context of the present study on non-monosexual identities, this

theory can still apply to them in a different sense from homosexual experiences.

In one study conducted by Flanders, Robinson, Legge, and Tarasoff in 2016

used minority stress theory with the study on the negative identity experiences of

non-monosexual people. In this study with using the theory of minority stress on

the bisexual and other non-monosexual individuals, the researchers found their

results to closely follow Meyer’s postulated stressors and how it affects them.

What made this unique was while it followed the stressors and even internal

processes for the proximal stresses, it had different contexts from those of

homosexuals, such as them experiencing internalized biphobia, ambivalence

with coming out and stereotypes from others due to lack of understanding of their

sexual identities.

Another study conducted by Corey Flanders, Ph. D. (2016) also followed

minority stress theory in that the study wanted to use the daily diary method as to

have a more complete understanding of experiences of the bisexual individuals

in the context of both positive and negative experiences, along with reports of

feelings of anxiety and stress. Using the daily diary method in which the

individuals were to write diary entries with regards to any lived experiences with

regards to their non-monosexual identities, the researcher found that her study

follows the principles stated in the minority stress theory. The researcher saw

negative identity events in the diaries of her informants to be strongly associated

to increased levels of feeling stressed and anxious over things. The study also

made a finding in that when there are positive events about their non-
 14

monosexual identities, the bisexual informants found these to be beneficial in

decreasing the daily levels of stress and anxiety. This study further solidifies that

while negative experiences and micro-aggressions experienced by bisexual and

other non-monosexual individuals have a strong relation to increased levels of

mental health issues such as stress and anxiety levels being high and

concerning, it also shows a positive view using the theory in that positive events

can be a great relief of such high levels of stress and anxiety for the individuals.

Another theory to discuss focusing on the bisexual identity is with regards

to the concept of bisexual erasure or invisibility. The most known piece of

reviewed Literature about this concept comes from the Epistemic Contract of

Bisexual Erasure, written by Kenji Yoshino in 2000. In the article, Yoshino

discusses bisexual invisibility and erasure, and how the latter has various

explanations as to why it continues to exist in a way that it does, focusing on the

idea of an epistemic model of social agreeance towards the notion of erasing the

sexual identity of bisexuality which also implies furthering that erasure to other

non-monosexual identities and even asexual identities. In brief, Yoshino talks

about how there are three levels of bisexual invisibility with the third level

focusing mainly on bisexual individuals. It focuses on how there is an omission of

the sexual identity in various contexts in psychological and sociological heuristics

or that there is a presumptuous notion for the majority of society that if one is not

heterosexual, then the sexual orientation of the target is mainly replaced with the

idea that the person is then homosexual; this leaves bisexuality and in turn other
 15

forms of identities invisible due to a lack of awareness of interest in

understanding.

In discussing more about bisexual erasure, Yoshino focused on how the

bisexual erasure itself is the cause of the stated bisexual invisibility and how

there are three possible explanations for it. The ontic explanation is the first of

the three and focuses more on how majority of society mainly sees things like

sex and gender as binary; this mainly follows the traditional views of biological

sex regarding male and female. The second explanation briefly still talked about

the terms of binary views but focused on a cognitive context. It focuses on how

majority of society cognitively views things like sex and identity as just binary

which has been long contested by anthropologists and historians as incomplete

due to how this cognitive explanation is not universal and that this mainly

depends on the culture. The third explanation is the main explanation used and

the major basis of the epistemic contract Yoshino claimed. In the socio-political

sense, it focuses more on how there is a struggle between two dichotomous

forces and how because of this there leaves little to no middle ground for the

understanding of identities that are not on the side of heterosexuality nor

homosexuality. This explanation focuses on the social norms set as supposedly

inflexible in its binary views. This arrangement becomes detrimental for bisexual

individuals for it leaves them as collateral damage from both sides, establishing

the notion that bisexual and other non-monosexual identities are subject to

scrutiny by both heterosexual and homosexual communities. These strategies in

scrutinizing, rationalizing, and erasing the bisexual identities are mainly seen in
 16

three forms. The first being the strategy of class erasure; this strategy is mainly

pertaining to how people deny that such an identity exists. How this is presented

is either through explicit and direct means or through more implicit methods; this

mainly involves people leaving out the idea of bisexuality or imply that bisexuality

is not a fully fleshed out identity but rather a transitional phase for the individual

into accepting themselves from heterosexual to homosexual or vice versa. This

would also entail the idea of individual erasure. Individual erasure is that while

many may see the sexual identity as an identity or class of its own, the people

would scrutinize on a certain individual’s identity if they are truly bisexual. This

would entail bisexual individuals being needed to prove their bisexuality through

things like sexual history; if they have had any sexual and or romantic

interactions with both male and female people. The last strategy is de-

legitimation in where the majority of people would start attaching stigma or

negative connotations towards the target’s bisexual identity. Seeing it as odd,

weird, or wrong, the people would express their negative views of it and then

proposing harmful ideas intended to show the negativity of it. Such harmful ideas

would include stereotypes. Common stereotypes regarding bisexuality would

include being seen as promiscuous, greedy, unreliable, indecisive, and even dirty

due to an older concept of bisexual people being transmitters of sexually

transmitted diseases such as HIV.

The epistemic model stated by Yoshino (2000) has long since been used

in various studies in seeing how people who are not bisexual or non-monosexual

view bisexuality and non-monosexuality as a whole. Studies would include how

 17

neither people who are not bisexual nor non-monosexual would perceive an

individual as possibly bisexual or non-monosexual using the idea of their sexual

history such as the case of the research study done by Flanders and Hatfield in

2012. In brief, the study focused on how with enough information to supposedly

go by, social perceptions of one’s bisexuality becomes a point of contesting. With

the idea that if the targeted individual has at one point acted out or thought of

sexual attraction, behavior and desire for the same sex, society would perceive

them as such. It showed how society’s perceptions still seem to follow more

monosexual views in that one is mainly either or. This study showed a clear case

of the bisexual erasure for it seemed to erase the idea of a sexual identity that

has sexual and or romantic attraction towards both males and females.

While there have been studies on bisexuality and other non-monosexual

identities, usually if not always there studies primarily focus on the negative

aspects of their sexual identities; this line of focus on negative outcomes are

actually prevalent in the multitude of studies that focus on the LGBT+ community

as a whole. Few and far in between are studies that have focused on LGBT+

research addressing to more positive based aspects but recently there have

been some that have begun to shed some light on how positive psychology can

be of use in its use in further research on LGBT+. Some research studies, have

specifically pointed to positive psychology concepts and models constructed by

Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000), specifically on their concept of the three

pillars of positive psychology as it is widely more used when focusing on the

concept of strength or the concept of qualities that help people adapt and live life
 18

in a content and fulfilling way which in this case is regarding LGBT+ strengths

(Lytle, Vaughan, Rodriguez & Shmerler, 2014; Vaughan, Miles, Parent, Lee,

Tilghman, & Prokhorets, 2014; Vaughan & Rodriguez, 2014). The three pillars

comprise of positive subjective experiences, positive character strengths or

values, and positive social institutions (Vaughan & Rodriguez, 2014). The first of

the three pillars focuses on aspects of well-being and how one interprets their

own experiences; in the case of sexuality it is how they view their own unique

sexual identities and how they can adapt and adjust to whatever comes their

way. This would entail the concepts of resilience and stress related growth which

were two main additional points for the first pillar. The second pillar focuses on

what personal qualities or traits does a person have that can necessitate them

being a good person and living out a good life. These would basically mean

certain virtues like courage and humanity along with their corresponding human

strengths such as integrity, vitality, love, kindness, and social awareness. The

third pillar focuses more on finding and or making social institutions or units that

can help bring about the other two pillars of positive psychology for people;

bringing out the strengths of a person. These can be from one’s families or circle

of friends but social institutions that can create a space of fostering strengths

which can include schools, workplaces, or the whole national society as a whole.

While the use of positive psychology has not been as much utilized in

LGBT+ studies, much less specifically on bisexuality, studies that have focused

on the concept has helped in bringing out a different side as opposed to just

focusing on negative aspects of experiences of the LGBT+. While there are some
 19

articles that have focused on positive psychology and LGBT+ experiences, the

articles are more reviews towards the topic than a full research study on the

topic. Two review articles (Lytle, Vaughan, Rodriguez, & Shmerler, 2014;

Vaughan & Rodriguez, 2014) have focused on examining and reviewing how

positive psychology can be incorporated into further research and even training

and practice with regards to the LGBT+ community; these studies have

discussed how not only are positive psychology and the main model by Seligman

and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) are very much possible in lining with LGBT+

strengths and experiences of said individuals but also how there can be a

promising future of these being further inducted into practice such as therapy.

The review articles have also brought up the parallel to how positive psychology

can relate with Meyer’s minority stress theory with regards to the health of the

LGBT+ individuals; specifically, focusing on the concepts of coping and external

factors such as the societies we live in can gravely foster either positive strengths

or negative stresses for the individuals. In line with the present study which is

more focused on bisexuality and other non-monosexual identities, a research

study done by Flanders, Tarasoff, Legge, Robinson, and Gos (2016) focused on

positive psychology with regards to positive experiences of sexual identity among

non-monosexual informants. The study showed how the positive experiences

were arranged in levels. The study also found that a lack of negative response or

a rather neutral response was still interpreted by the individuals as positive

experiences. The study showed an interesting view for further research on

positive psychology for not only LGBT+ community as a whole.

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Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this study is to fully explore the lived experiences of the

Filipino individuals as with regards to family and religion. Specifically, this study

sought to understand the experiences and explore the process of going through

any conflicts that arise from their disclosure of sexual orientation. This study

wishes to further explore on any positive experiences the Filipino individuals

have experienced in the context of the two aforementioned factors. Research

questions guided this study:

1. What are the lived experiences of the Filipino non-monosexual informants

in the context of family and religion?

2. What are the effects of those experiences to the Filipino non-monosexual

informants?

3. How would the Filipino non-monosexual informants describe their

experiences in the context of family and religion?

4. What themes emerged from the testimonies of the Filipino non-

monosexual informants?

5. What insights do the Filipino non-monosexual informants learn from their

experiences?
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Significance of the Study

In this study, the following people or groups of people will benefit from the

findings as to the main objective which is to explore the lived experiences of

Filipino individuals who identify as non-monosexual with regards to their family

interactions and relations, and with their religious upbringing and views.

To fellow Filipino non-monosexual individuals. That this will help them

feel validated over their own experiences; the researcher has seen from various

reviewed Literature that the experiences of bisexuals and other non-monosexual

individuals are different and or unique from the lived experiences of homosexual

and heterosexual individuals. The researcher is hopeful that this study will help

fellow Filipino bisexuals and other non-monosexuals understand their own lived

experiences of family interactions and religious upbringing through the findings in

this study and that these may bring about a sense of understanding and unity

within the non-monosexual community. The researcher is hopeful that these may

continue solidifying the non-monosexual identities while also continue in

spreading awareness and understanding towards any issues with the idea of

non-monosexuality.

To the rest of the LGBT+ community in the Philippines. That this will

shed more awareness and understanding towards their fellow community

members who are bisexual and non-monosexual; the LGBT+ community has

always been about spreading love, acceptance and visibility of their identities to

the usually heteronormative societies such as in the Philippine setting. The

researcher is hopeful that this study’s findings will help in contributing better and

further understanding and awareness for the LGBT+ community and even
 22

organizations such as Metro Manila Pride, UP Babaylan, and

ProudCampaign.PH to continue supporting their fellow kinsmen who sexually

identify as bisexual and non-monosexual and continue in keeping their identities

visible from even those within their own communities who may contest its validity.

To the families who have relatives that sexually identify as non-

monosexual. That the findings in this study may help them understand their

family members who sexually identify as non-monosexual. As family can be seen

as a place of support, it is beneficial for family members to be more open-

minded, aware, understanding and supportive over the sexual identities of its

family members as to mitigate, avoid and ally against prejudices and stigma

regarding their family members’ sexualities, allowing them to grow and eventually

become openly supportive LGBT+ allies. Especially in the regards to how family

and religion are very close social factors in the Philippine setting, it may help

Filipino families to be better social supports in fully accepting their family

members as bisexual or non-monosexual.

To future researchers. That they may find this study helpful in furthering

the understanding of lived experiences of individuals who sexually identify as

non-monosexual. Researchers in the field of Psychology, Sociology and even

Gender and Queer Studies may hopefully find this study and its findings useful in

furthering their own studies or review of Literature as with regards to the

experiences of individuals who sexually identify as non-monosexual. The

researcher is hopeful that this study can contribute its findings in better
 23

understanding the lived experiences of non-monosexual individuals regarding

major social factors such as family and religion.

Scope and Delimitation

The study, entitled ‘Beyond the binary boundaries: Filipino non-

monosexuality identity experiences on the context of religion and family’, will

determine its main objective which is to explore the lived experiences of Filipino

individuals who identify as non-monosexual with regards to their family

interactions and relations, and with their religious upbringing and views. To do

so, the researcher will approach this study using a qualitative approach. For the

qualitative approach, the researcher will be using in-depth semi-structured

interviews.

The study will be conducted within the Metro Manila area. The

respondents the researcher will be asking are those who are individuals who are

within the range of early adulthood which is from 18 years of age until 35 years of

age, preferably who are currently or have accomplished at least a college

undergraduate education. The main demographic the researcher is seeking is

that these individuals are those who sexually identify as non-monosexual,

meaning they are bisexual, pansexual, fluid, or queer. Another main factor is that

these individuals have at least been raised with a religion during their childhood,

mainly by their families, and that they may or may have not since changed or

renounced their faith.

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Definition of Terms

The following terms in this study are operationally and conceptually

defined for the better understanding of the readers. The following terms are as

follows.

Bisexuality is defined as a sexual orientation in which an individual has

the capacity for sexual and or romantic interest in two or more genders. This is

usually under the basis of what is commonly known as the 2 main genders: male

and female.

Family Experience is operationally defined as the positive, negative, and

neutral lived experiences of individuals in the context of family. These would

include the individuals’ dynamic with their family relations and certain interactions

with family members such as family, siblings, cousins, aunts & uncles, and

grandparents.

Non-monosexual is an umbrella term to mean identities such as

bisexuality, but also including other sexual identities such as pansexuality, queer,

and fluid+; they tend to lack visibility and or acceptance in the larger LGBT+

community (Brown, Montgomery, & Hammer, 2017). Non-monosexual refers to it

not following the idea of attraction to just one gender and or sex. Another

commonly used alternative term is the bisexual umbrella.

Religious Experience is operationally defined as the positive, negative,

and neutral lived experiences of individuals in the context of Religion. These

would include interactions with religious upbringing, conflict of views and

integration into the faith or living authentically with or without a religious belief.
 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

In this chapter, several literature and studies were gathered to help further

solidify and establish the main objectives of this study. The following are placed

in categories with subheadings to organize the researchers’ review of the stated

literature and studies and will help in solidifying the researcher’s study.

The Philippine Social Norms and Values

All progressively modern societies depend on laws and social norms and

or roles to guide their society to a more well-functional one. While laws are cut

and straight to the point as they are mainly a necessity to keep proper order and

provide security and reassurance for its people, social norms tend to be more

subjective and in need of proper contexts, but they are strong building blocks that

are the foundation for various cultures and their languages and societal control of

the people. In an in depth article regarding social norms by McDonald and

Crandall (2015), the article described the idea of the social norm as a pattern of

ideas and expectations in how an individual or group of individuals would and

should behave relative to a certain group of a given context; these can be from

family to workplace to the general society and or its culture. As a mechanism

used to have social control, social norms are usually seen as progressive and

beneficial for the sake of continuing the improvement and development of one’s

society. With many positive social norms, there are also various negative social

norms which can perpetuate harmful social concepts such as stereotypes and
 26

prejudices. These social norms can either foster positive or negative views and

experiences; marginalized groups of people typically receive the negative

experiences such as harmful or incorrect stereotypes and stigma.

Social Values are at times interchangeable with social norms but while

social norms are described as more of the expected behaviors one has to exhibit

towards certain groups of society or society in general, social values are the

cultural standards in which various social norms are based off of. They are the

moral input of one’s behaviors towards and within society for it should embody

what is considered correct, good and important for society (Shah, 2014). As

stated, since social norms follow a social value and its judgment depending on

the context of the culture, it would make sense to say that when there comes

deviation or loss of social value and direction, would the social norm be seen as

no longer important or necessary and deviation from the current can lead to

social exclusions (McDonald & Crandall, 2015).

In the Philippines, the social norms have placed great emphasis on

Filipinos being highly family-centric and devoutly religious based from their

upbringing with Roman Catholicism being the most prominent of the religions

prevalent in the nation (Santos & Marchadesch, 2017; Tarroja, 2010). At present,

these factors weigh heavily in the Philippine society’s social psyche. Various

Filipino cultural values include the aforementioned family-centric orientation and

their upholding of faith and religiosity but also include other Filipino social and

cultural values. Specifically Filipino core values would include companionship

called ‘pakikisama’, propriety and dignity called ‘hiya’ and the sense of solidarity
 27

or gratitude called ‘utang na loob’, while other known values would include a high

sense of empathy, care and hospitality, emotional resilience and strong sense of

camaraderie (Alberto, 2018; Alde, 2014).

In the context of family, the Philippines have maintained a high regard for

the family as one of the most important social units. In the general sense, a

typical Filipino family will mainly consist of the parents, which is comprised of the

male husband and the female wife due to certain issues still with the idea of

same-sex marriage, and the children who are typically biologically theirs; usually

if not in many families in the Philippines they also include the grandparents,

cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews (Cabayaran, 2015). With these

families being extensive that various generations can live together under the

same household, formation of values are heavily nurtured and developed for the

children starting at the family unit due to many of those values being treasured

and embodied by previous generations of the family to the next generation

hoping they can continue embodying and improving themselves for the sake of

adjusting properly to the larger units or groups of society (Cabayaran, 2015).

In an in-depth study on values found in Filipino families by Morillo, Capuno

and Mendoza (2013), they researched through the use of regression the

correlation of the stated family views among the Filipino people, following

contexts that these also show how due to modernization and other factors many

Filipino family values are no longer as traditional with their values and views, and

are evolving their structure, style and values. Their research findings found that

the most commonly accepted family values for the Filipinos was on how critical
 28

parents are in ensuring their children are reared and raised well enough to

handle and adjust to society as they mature, and the idea of bearing children

itself. While these are the generally accepted and highlighted Filipino family

values across the various social norms, there are still certain altering views

depending on various factors, such as one or both parents’ educational levels,

socio-economic status, and the family’s location as either living in urban or rural

settings among the three major island groups. Other influential factors may also

include ethnic background and even religious faith. The study also highlighted

upon the evolving views of family values in general and talked about the various

factors that influence such evolution. Such factors were possibly due to the

experiences of migration and changes in policies. While these are evolving, the

study showed that there is no reluctance in the evolution of these changes with

adaptability while retaining core values that is still crucial for the Filipino family.

As stated as one of the many Filipino family values, high regards for faith

and religiosity is still very much prevalent for many of the Filipino societies

present. In a 2015 Statistics Compilation made by the Philippine Statistics

Authority, the demographics of the Filipinos’ religions show that 81% of the total

population of Filipinos are of the Religion Roman Catholicism, with Islam being

the second most prevalent religion in the Philippines but of only 5%. Those who

do not have any stated religion as shown in the table only made up to 0.079% of

the total Philippine population. This shows that religion is still a very prevalent

social factor in the Philippines.

 29

In a 2017 first quarter survey report under the Social Weather Stations,

the authors Krisia Santos and Eliza Marie Marchadesch focused on the statistics

of religious activity Filipinos do. Based from their statistical report, it can be seen

that 48% of the total sample size of adult Filipino men and women would weekly

attend to religious services, usually in the form of Saturday or Sunday mass

service. In terms of which specific religion from the multitude of Filipino religions

are the highest in prevalence of weekly religious service, 90% of members of the

Iglesia Ni Cristo would weekly attend their religious services while Roman

Catholicism, which has been established as the most prevalent religion in the

Philippines are at a weekly religious service percentage of 41%. Muslim Filipinos

who weekly attend religious services are at an 81% while other known Christian

denominations who weekly attend religious services are estimated at 71%. If

looking at religious services at a monthly rate, the overall percentage is at 34%,

with Roman Catholicism being the highest at around 39%, other Christian

denomination being at around 18%. Muslim Filipinos in this category only score

9% in monthly religious services and Iglesia Ni Cristo being at 4%. If at the

context of only occasionally attending religious services, Roman Catholicism and

its religious followers were at a 20% score. For the adult Filipinos who do not at

all attend any religious services, the percentage of them only make up to less

than or equal to 1% across all the possible religions.

The other part of the survey report done by Santos and Marchadesch in

2017 focused on the sample of adult Filipinos and their views of the importance

of religion. Based from the findings through the survey questions given to the
 30

sample, 85% of the sample population has stated that religion in general is still

very and or moderately important to Filipino lives while to those who have stated

not very or low only make up around 18%. When specifying with the importance

of religion by each religion, the report stated that the religion with the highest

percentage of their followers seeing religion as very or highly important were

members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo; their total percentage was at 96%. Roman

Catholicism and other Christian denominations both tallied to 85% and Filipino

Muslims or those who practice the Islamic faith only tallied to 71%. When it came

to importance as being none to lowly, the highest percentage was from the

Muslim members at 29% stating religion as not as important. The Roman

Catholics and other Christian denominations tallied to 15% each and the lowest

were members or followers of Iglesia Ni Cristo. The total percentage was only at

4%. Based from the currently reviewed literature and studies, this clearly

establishes family and religion as highly regarded and prevalent social factors for

the majority of the Filipinos in terms of their social norms and values.

The LGBT+ Community in the Philippines

It can be clearly seen as that because they are both highly prevalent and

influential in the majority of Filipino society, those who are and can be

marginalized are the individuals or groups who deviate from the supposed social

norms and expectations. Given the information about the majority of the Filipino

society, it can be seen that individuals or minority groups who deviate from highly

religious and family centric norms that uphold hetero-normativity would be those
 31

who are non-heterosexual to begin with. These would pertain to the LGBT+

community in the Philippine society which has made a lot progress in trying to

address glaring issues of inequality, reluctant tolerance and direct or subtle forms

of prejudice, stigma, and discrimination. With the continued evolving of Filipino

values that start at the family, it may be an eventual occurrence that there would

be more accepting social norms and values for people who are of non-

heterosexual identities. In recent years, there has been continued and growing

support and rise of the LGBT+ community to further spread awareness,

acceptance and societal change from the majority of the heteronormative society

in the Philippines. Individuals who identify themselves as homosexual or other

non-heterosexual identities may go through or have gone through experiences

from various social contexts that have caused certain conflicts. Such social

contexts may mainly be from both family and or religion, and with those conflicts

it can specifically be about prejudices, stigma, discrimination, and direct or

indirect acts of harassment or assault. This further complicates the society more

for if there is only so much growth in the acceptance of homosexuality in the

LGBT+ community, how much more awareness or interest is being placed with

the other community members in the spectrum? The individuals who are

transgender, asexual, and non-monosexual?

The Bisexual Umbrella and Non-Monosexuality

Bisexuality has since been used as both a sexual orientation and catch all

term for other sexual orientations similar to it and due to how rarely it is at times
 32

for researchers to discern bisexuality from other non-monosexual identities; thus,

being combined under bisexuality or the more commonly used term the bisexual

umbrella (Flanders, Lebreton, Robinson, Bian, & Caravaca – Morera, 2016;

Flanders, 2017). According to Flanders (2017), the term bisexual umbrella has

been commonly used as a term to describe various identities and behaviors or

attractions of non-monosexuality. As what the name implies, the term is used to

categorize other non-monosexual identities other than bisexuality. Other known

non-monosexual identities would notably include queer, fluid and pansexuality. In

a reported study by Robinson (2017), in many parts of Canada’s indigenous

people, a sexual identity known as two-spirit is also considered under the

bisexual umbrella for its very similar definitions amongst other non-monosexual

identities. This term as to describe non-monosexuality and its various identities

has certain deficiencies in its use due to how it still makes other sexual identities

categorized mainly the in the more known identity of bisexuality for the sake of

simplicity; it makes it sound as though bisexuality is the default sexual identity for

other sexual identities that have similar definitions to it. This may become an

issue for certain people such as researcher for the definition of bisexuality itself is

subject to changes depending on certain contexts; this concept also does not

hold much in trying to exacerbate the need for the other non-monosexual

identities to be clearly defined as their own sexual identities where if it was to be

seen that the bisexual umbrella is actually hiding them then it raises tensions with

the idea of sexual identity erasure. While there may still be certain flaws with the

logic behind the usage of the term, the bisexual umbrella has still become a good
 33

reference point for not just non-monosexuals but for also researchers studying up

further upon LGBT+ studies. The term has also become a safe-haven for non-

monosexuals for there are many experiences that non-monosexuals seem to

share in similarities amongst the group under it while furthering their own goals in

spreading better awareness which can in the end grow into understanding.

The usage of the term bisexuality has since been further understood by

researchers and their studies show that while there are more consistent

definitions of the sexual orientation, many individuals who do identify as bisexual

or have a grasp at the concept have differing perceptions of the term, along with

other non-monosexual identities. These studies do show that there is certain

perspectives that have similar but slightly altered views of the term itself (Brown,

Montgomery, & Hammer, 2017; Galupo, Ramirez & Pulice-Farrow, 2016;

Flanders & Hatfield, 2012; Flanders, Lebreton, Robinson, Bian, & Caravaca –

Morera, 2016). This would be considered problematic as various researchers

have since recommended to include more sexual identities categorized in the

bisexual umbrella as to have better understanding over the unique experiences

faced by other non-monosexual identifying individuals (Flanders, Robinson,

Legge, & Tarasoff., 2016; Flanders, Tarasoff, Legge, Robinson, & Gos; 2016;

Levy & Harr, 2018).

In many studies regarding bisexuality, there is growing evidence to show

that there are differing and unique experiences bisexual individuals experience

from those who identify as homosexuals. In some studies, they focused on

bisexual specific experiences and tendencies with regards to health in both

 34

physical and mental health contexts. Many of these studies would regard

bisexual individuals with experiencing a higher risk for mental health issues,

sexually transmitted infections and even usage of substances (Feinstein & Dyar,

2018). The main focused increase is the increased risk as with regards to

bisexual specific micro-aggressions which affect their mental health, causing

effects such as stress and anxiety (Bostwick & Hequembourg, 2014; Flanders,

2015; Flanders, Tarasoff, Legge, Robinson, & Gos; 2016). These forms of micro-

aggressions can turn into stigma and prejudice for the bisexual individuals,

forming biphobia or anti-bisexual views and prejudices that also heavily affect the

individuals. One major form of anti-bisexual prejudice is bisexual erasure

(Roberts, Horne & Hoyt, 2015). According to Yoshino (2000), bisexual erasure is

when the sexual identity of bisexuals itself is not entirely acknowledged,

rationalized or even erased as it does not conform to the more monosexual views

of sexual identities prevalent in the societal norms. Even with more research

being done on bisexuality as the focus, there seems to still be various factors that

affect and cause anti-bisexual prejudice, ambiguity and stigma (Garelick, Filip-

Crawford, Varley, Nagoshi, Nagoshi, & Evans, 2017). Even more so that other

non-monosexual identities are still not as widely studied as bisexuality. These

factors are typically external factors found in the social norms prevalent in the

society.

A study that mainly followed the idea of the bisexual umbrella focused on

how certain young non-monosexual individuals would actually describe the

sexual identity most commonly understood from the bisexual umbrella which is
 35

bisexuality (Flanders, Lebreton, Robinson, Bian, & Caravaca – Morera, 2016).

This study was made as to understand how fellow bisexual and pansexual

individuals would define the term bisexuality for themselves and the defining

characteristics that make up the non-monosexual identity, such as attraction or

behaviors. Based from the study’s findings it can be seen that while there is a

clear dictionary definition of bisexuality, for bisexuals and other non-monosexuals

the idea of bisexuality is still similar to that definition but have slightly altering

views of it depending on the social context it is at. Another study by Galupo,

Ramirez and Pulice-Farrow (2016) focused on how non-monosexuals or

individuals who sexually identify under the bisexual umbrella describe and even

conceptualize their own sexual identities. Following a similar pattern of approach

with the previous study on bisexuality’s definitions, the findings of this study

showed themes that revolved around the idea of labeling oneself, distinguish the

individuals’ attractions distinctively, the understanding and use of binary or non-

binary language when defining one’s attractions or labeling one’s identity, the

idea of transcending or going beyond and adapting their own definitions of their

own sexual identities, and the lingering confusions that still perpetuate when

viewing how adaptive or changing their own definitions of their own sexual

identity can be. Similar to the previously discussed research study, this study

showed how fluid the definition of non-monosexuality can be for those who

actually identify as being non-monosexual or under the bisexual umbrella. These

findings from the research studies show more complexity regarding the bisexual

umbrella and provide insight about how non-monosexuals see their own sexual
 36

identities as something unlike the more rigid definitions found in heterosexuality

and monosexuality in general.

This marks a clear contrast to a research study conducted by Flanders

and Hatfield (2012). This study focused on how monosexual, mainly

heterosexual, individuals would see the point in which a target individual is

actually a bisexual. This study focused on the idea or concept called the “One-

Time Rule of Homosexuality”; this concept focuses on if individuals can

categorize someone else’s sexual identity using information in which the target

individual will supposedly have had sexual attraction or desire for the same sex

or have engaged in sexual behavior with the same sex. Based from the findings,

the results showed that the targets in the study with the vignettes of information

were a little more than three fourths classified with the sexual identity of

bisexuality. This study also showed interesting findings about the perception of

men versus women when it came to sexual desire or behavior towards the same

sex. In the study, the female targets were considered to be more bisexual than

the male targets; these show that females are seen to be more sexual flexible or

fluid while males are socially seen as to have more of an inflexible or rigid

categorization of their sexual orientation. This study showed how there are still

certain subtle micro-aggressions towards bisexuality and non-monosexuality in

general due to how supposedly one’s sexual identity is as easily understood just

by who the individual has sexually acted with. This is a major point of prejudice

and stereotyping that bisexual and other non-monosexual individuals are actively

spreading clearer awareness to.

 37

In one study conducted by Flanders, Robinson, Legge, and Tarasoff in

2016 used Meyer’s minority stress theory with the study on the negative identity

experiences of non-monosexual people. Using the theory, the study followed the

use of distal and proximal stressors prevalent in their informants’ lived

experiences and saw interesting findings. In the distal level of minority stressors,

the informants all experienced similar experiences with homosexual experiences

when it came to certain direct and or subtle forms of harassment, prejudice and

stigma; what was interesting and definitely unique for the experiences among the

non-monosexual individuals were the ideas and acts of erasure, improper

stereotyping, ambiguity and the contesting of the authenticity of their sexual

identities from both monosexual communities, heterosexual and homosexual. In

the proximal level of the informants’ stressors, they saw that the individuals all

reported internalized biphobia in which due to possibly the many distal stressors

they have experiences; they themselves have altered and questioned their own

identities’ authenticity without certain supposed requirements. The informants

also shared experiences of the feelings of ambivalence about the coming out

process which roots itself to the ideas of concealment and the expectations of

fear and rejection.

Other studies also report on how minority stress for bisexuals increase

certain negative health risks other than just mental health aspects of the

individuals. A review study by Feinstein and Dyar (2017) showed that based on

various reviewed literature, there are certain consistent findings with regards to

bisexuals and with regards to various aspects of their health. These findings are
 38

consistent with the conceptual framework found in minority stress theory. With

regards to mental health, findings have consistently shown that bisexual

individuals have higher risks of suffering from chronic mood and or anxiety

disorders; the review study discussed how bisexual women were at the highest

followed by lesbian women and then heterosexual women but in the perspectives

of men, gay men and bisexual men were seen to have equal high rates of

chronic life-time mood or anxiety disorders, both placing higher than

heterosexual men. The study also shed light on bisexual individuals having

higher risks for depression and even suicidal ideation compared to heterosexual

and homosexual individuals. Onto more physical health related aspects, the

review article found consistent findings of bisexual individuals with higher risk of

substance use, such as alcohol or use of marijuana, as compared to homosexual

individuals but the findings have been considered more inconsistent when

focusing on comparisons with heterosexual individuals. The last aspect in the

review article focused on sexual health. The findings were not as consistent as

the first two because there was taking into account how bisexuals would behave

as to seem to be more of either homosexual or heterosexual tendencies but so

far in the findings behaviorally bisexual men were seen to have slightly higher

risks of attaining sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) than men who are

behaviorally heterosexual. The study had little to no steady consistency when it

came to the sexual health of bisexual women but some findings from other

reviewed literature has placed them as the possible increased risk for STIs

similar to their male bisexual counterparts.

 39

In another study done by Flanders (2015), the study also focused on

minority stress theory as it was focused on the everyday experiences of

bisexuals and the feelings of stress and anxiety that are associated with their

mental health. The study focused on using the daily diary methodology so the

informants can write about their experiences daily and where it can be analyzed

for all the social interactions they go through daily. The main focus of this study

was to see if the social interactions involved with the informants’ sexual identity

as a bisexual can relate to the informants’ overall mental health, depending on

certain variables such as stress, anxiety, micro-aggressions, self-esteem, and

overall mental well-being. Based from the results of this study, it can be seen that

it aligns with Meyer’s third tenet of how negative experiences regarding one’s

sexual identity increases the prevalence of possible health issues with the most

common being mental health issues from stress and anxiety. The study also

aligns with established understanding in that with positive experiences of one’s

sexual identity, there is an inverse association with higher levels of anxiety and or

stress.

Regarding the claim that bisexual and other non-monosexual individuals

suffer not just from the non-heterosexual forms of prejudice and or stigma but

also forms of contesting of one’s sexual identities from both heterosexual and

homosexual communities, it can be observed that bisexuals and other non-

monosexual individuals suffer from what is called as monosexism, or the claim

that sexual identity can only be authentically defined as having romantic and or

sexual attraction to either the opposite or the same sex, not both nor neither. This
 40

affects not only the non-monosexual identities such as bisexuals and pansexual

individuals but also the asexual spectrum and those who do not have sexual

attractions to either sex. One study conducted by Roberts, Horne and Hoyt

(2015) focused on bisexual individual experiences with regards to monosexism.

The purpose of this study was to see if bisexuals really do experience

monosexism from both heterosexual and homosexual communities and if there is

a degree of difference from them. The study also wanted to focus on correlations

of coming out to and being accepted by family and friends and the bisexuals’

perceived experiences of possible prejudices, stigma or discrimination towards

their sexual identities, and how they themselves internalize it. Based from the

quantitative research findings using various scales, the study brought up that

while there is anti-bisexual prejudice and discrimination from the homosexual

community in line with the idea of monosexism, the bisexual individuals still

receive far more from the heterosexual community. The findings also showed

that anti-bisexual experiences (ABE) were higher for the bisexual individuals

when non-consensually outed out to their families before they were ready and

lower when they received the needed love and support from friends and family.

The research did fail to predict internalized bi-negativity using the ABE’s. This

study does continue to follow on the notion of monosexuality and in line

monosexism being an actual factor towards conflict for bisexuals and other non-

monosexual identities.

While there have been many studies regarding bisexuality and non-

monosexuality and their experiences along with aspects of the individuals such
 41

as their overall health, many times do these researches focus mainly on the

negative aspects or outcomes that these individuals go through. Whether it being

negative effects to their health due to minority stress theory or negative

experiences from bisexual erasure or invisibility, the direction various researches

have done on LGBT+ studies in general has been primarily focused on studying

up the negative aspects. In contrast to this, there have been some researchers

that have been done to try and incorporate more positive-based outcome

research and or research direction as to have a newer perspective in not only

just bisexual studies but also LGBT+ studies in general.

One particular study regarding bisexuality was conducted by Flanders,

Tarasoff, Legge, Robinson, and Gos (2016) which focused on positive identity

experiences of non-monosexual individuals. An opposite research study from a

previously discussed study on negative identity experiences, this research study

focused more on how bisexual and other non-monosexual individuals experience

moments in their everyday lives that are positive in capturing and affirming their

sexual identity and with how these positive experiences or micro-affirmations

affect the individuals. Using positive psychology by Seligman and

Csikszentmihalyi (2000), along with a qualitative daily diary method of approach,

the study produced showed interesting findings. In a data analytical sense, the

research followed the same structure and organization of themes as like the

research study antithesis which was on negative experiences; both studies were

organized in the intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional levels, with many of

the positive sexual identity experiences the individuals had occurred mainly at
 42

the interpersonal level. One rather interesting finding the researchers did not

expect is that for many of the individuals, receiving a response without any

negative context was considered by them to be a positive experience; meaning,

neutral level responses towards their sexual identity as bisexual or non-

monosexual was considered by them as still a positive experience.

Family Interactions

The most basic social unity is the family, and while definitions of the term

may differ depending on the context of the society, it is considered universal in

various social and medical sciences. One commonly accepted definition for what

constitutes a family is that it is a group of domestically intimate members who

relate to one another either from affinity, co-residence or consanguinity (Essays

UK, 2013; Sharma, 2013). Given that families usually depict parents having

children, one of the main functions of a family is to help the children learn and

develop properly to become members of their society. It is usually at the older

members’ roles of the family, such as parents, aunts and uncles, or even

grandparents who will help the need to build, mold and nurture the children to

having a strong ethical and moral foundation to eventually become active

members of society (Essays UK, 2013; Lumen Learning, n.d.; University of

Minnesota Libraries, n.d.).

While there is an innateness of members of the family to seek support,

comfort and acceptance from their fellow family members, in terms of many

current societies’ views over sexual identities diverting from heterosexuality it has
 43

been a great subject for researchers to study on. Countless researches have

shown that in many societies, they still have low opinions or understanding over

sexual identities diverting from heterosexuality, with many of these studies

focusing on the issues and experiences of individuals from the LGBT+ having to

deal with conflicts that may or may not be resolved within the most fundamental

social unit.

In one study by Carasthatis, Cohen, Kaczmarek, and Chang (2016), they

focused on the themes of rejection by the family for their individual members

being gay or lesbian and how there was a sense of establishing resilience

through the rejection of their own fundamental social unit. Another similar study

done by D’amico, Julien, Tremblay, and Chartrand (2015) focused on the

mother-child and father-child dynamic of the family relationships and how the

reaction of a certain parent to the coming out of their children’s sexual identity as

not being the norm which is heterosexual would entail changes on how the child

would continue adapting, adjusting and developing their sexual identity along

with how the dynamic between the parent and child may even change as well.

The study’s findings are the following. The first finding is that regardless if it was

the mother or the father who had heard their child coming out as non-

heterosexual, as long as the parents are supportive, there lies a higher chance

for the child to develop in a positive manner; they would develop positive

strengths and confidence and lower risk of developing sexual identity related

stresses. In opposition with that first finding the reverse of that being parents

struggling or even still controlling their children’s sexual identities despite coming
 44

out can lead to high risks of stressors such as internalized homophobia; the

advent of minority stress theory. An interesting finding is that there is a possibility

in where the child’s own negative perceptions of their sexual identity and non-

heterosexual identities as a whole may in fact also increase the struggles of

understanding for the parents which then in turn becomes a possible influence

for the negative perceptions.

While there have been various studies on mainly the gay and lesbian

populations, there has been more specific researches mainly on bisexual

individuals as well. These studies have proven that there still similar but overall

unique experiences of bisexual individuals when coming out and disclosing their

sexual identity to family members such as parents and siblings (Wandrey,

Mosack, & Moore, 2015; Watson, 2014). In a study by Pistella, Salvati, Ioverno,

Laghi, and Baiocco (2016), the research focused on the coming out process for

gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals to the family all while in regards to

internalized stigma with regards to the non-heterosexual identities of the

individuals. The study is also rather unique for it was conducted in an Italian

setting with an Italian sample size; Italy are one of many nations known to be

rather family-oriented while also still strong in their societal views of

heteronormativity. Based from the study’s findings, it can be seen that bisexual

individuals have a less likely act in coming out to their family members as

opposed to homosexual individuals; these may be due to still prevalent negative

stereotypes regarding bisexuality including the ambiguity or overall erasure of it

as an actual sexual identity while another possible explanation for this can be
 45

due to how some of the bisexual individuals in a sense can still get away with

concealing their real sexual identities if they are involved in what is viewed as

heterosexual behavior. Another interesting finding was on certain external factors

that may affect the individuals’ coming out; primarily on religiosity. The study

showed no significant association despite how religion, primarily Roman

Catholicism which is the more prevalent religion in Italy, are usually strongly

against non-heterosexual identities and living but the researchers have possibly

explained it as the individuals of the study having families who are not as

religious as the norm. External factors that did show to have significant

associations included educational level and political views. The last finding saw

that if the individual has strong familial bonds with the family and has had

interactions or contacts with other fellow LGBT+ members or even the

community themselves, they have a higher likelihood of coming out while also

showing lower chances of internalized sexual stigma. In a follow up research

study in 2017 by the same researchers of Salvati, Pistella, Ioverno, Laghi, and

Baiocco, the follow up research study focused more on coming out to siblings;

the study is still set in Italy and focuses on the same concepts as the previous

which is on how coming out will affect the individuals’ wellbeing and the exposure

to internalized sexual stigma within the family, but what was changed in this

study was non-inclusion of bisexuals; hence, the study focusing more on just gay

and lesbian individuals. The findings for this study showed that there is no

difference between gay men and lesbian women when it comes to the rate of

coming out to their siblings. Another finding found the Italian gay male individuals
 46

confirmed in having higher levels of internalized sexual stigma than the Italian

lesbian female individuals. Another finding supported the previous in that the

effect of coming out on internalized sexual stigma would depend on the

individuals’ gender as in this study Italian gay men were most likely facing

significantly more forms of discrimination and prejudice while the possible society

of Italy allows women to be more sexually fluid and even intimate with fellow

women. The study recommends furthering the research of coming out towards

the siblings, the possible changes of family dynamic between siblings and the

possibility of the siblings into becoming social support for the non-heterosexual

sibling in handling their parents and possibly other family members. The study

also recommends including bisexuals and other members of the LGBT+ when

furthering the research of coming out to the family and or to specific members

such as parents or siblings.

One particular study the researcher wants to highlight upon is a study

done by Todd, Oravecz and Vejar (2016) which was an in depth study on

biphobia in the family context. This study resulted with four major themes found

from the experiences of the bisexual participants: interpersonal hostility and

invalidation, perceptions of sexual irresponsibility, family perception of sexual

orientation as instability, and bisexual invisibility. While there are more

researches done specifically on bisexuality, there are many studies that wish to

continue and recommend future studies into expanding to more non-monosexual

identities.
 47

Religion and Religious Upbringing

With family being one major factor in the cause of conflict with non-

heterosexual identities, one of the more prevalent factors against identities

diverting from heterosexuality is religion. Religion and its more traditionalist views

over things such as sexuality, it is of no surprise that it has caused various

internal and external forms of conflict for non-heterosexual individuals. Coupled

with the fact that various societies hold religion highly, such as the Philippines

with Christianity, this mainly causes various families to use their religion as a

reference for their views on non-heterosexuality which can become a bigger

source of conflict for their family members who do not identify as heterosexual

(Etengoff & Daiute, 2014). This becomes a point in which various social scientific

researches have been done to further establish and understand this point of

conflict for the individuals (Page, Lindahl & Malik, 2013; Rodriguez, Etengoff &

Vaughan, 2017).

One study done by Foster, Brewster, Velez, Eklund, and Keum (2016)

focused on the religious, spiritual and atheistic beliefs of individuals of the LGBT+

community and how these beliefs may have affected their personal, mental

health and relational variables or factors in their experiences. A study done in the

Filipino context focused on the idea and process of integration of LGBT+

members’ identity with a religious identity. This study showed that it is very much

possible for an individual identifying within the LGBT+ community to also have a

religious identity and that those two are not mutually exclusive (Evangelista,

Dumaop & Nelson, 2016).

 48

While there are many studies done in the general LGBT+ community,

there are not as many studies discussing specifically bisexuality and other non-

monosexual identities with religion. One study by Levy and Harr (2018) did focus

specifically on experiences of non-monosexual individuals who were raised in a

Christian upbringing. The study showed an in-depth view into the individuals’

process of conflict dissonance to conflict resolution. Similar to the studies with

family, there are yet more to be more studies that focus on other non-

monosexual identities and their experiences with religion.

Relevance to the Present Study

In this study, various forms of Literature were read and reviewed upon by

the researcher as a means of further solidifying the researcher’s objectives of the

stated study. The reviewed related Literature were then paraphrased and or

summarized in this section for the means of expounding on necessary concepts

that the researcher wants to address while also providing supplementary

references in further supporting the main reviewed related Literature. The

following is a summary of the researcher’s views for some of the more pertinent

research studies and how they remain relevant with the current study while also

focusing on their limitations; a way to showcase and build a consensus for the

present study.

When focusing on the studies found on the reviewed related Literature

present in this chapter the researcher wanted to focus on what made the studies

and the present study similar and different as to remain its relevance. In the
 49

study by Flanders and Hatfield (2012), the study focused more on how

individuals would perceive one’s sexuality through vignettes of information. What

makes this research study by Flanders and Hatfield relevant to the present study

is how it conceptually stems from the idea of Bisexual Erasure from Yoshino

(2000). The quantitative study focused on the idea of bisexual erasure through

another concept of the one-time rule of homosexuality in which if there is

information about a certain person having had at least once thought or behaved

in a way that showed sexual and or romantic behavior or desire for the same sex,

they are most definitely categorized as homosexual rather than heterosexual.

This is relevant for it follows the idea of monosexism and the erasure of the

attraction for more than one gender or orientation; ergo, non-monosexuality such

as bisexuality. This would make it similar to the current study for it would focus

on the notion of other people’s perceptions of said non-monosexual individuals

and their non-monosexual identities. For the sake of the present study; however,

it would be talking about the lived experiences of the non-monosexual individuals

themselves and how they may feel the perceptions of others about their sexual

identities. One glaringly obvious limitation with this study was how the there was

a sense of forcing the participants in categorizing the target individuals with a

sexual identity and that there is a need for better and diverse sexual identity

categories to consider as well.

In another study by Flanders, Lebreton, Robinson, Bian, and Caravaca-

Morera (2016), the relevance of this reviewed study to the present study is

regarding the conciseness of definition of sexual identities of non-monosexuality

 50

by the very individuals under non-monosexuality or rather the bisexual umbrella.

As seen in its findings, while there is a consistent thematic definition of

bisexuality for individuals who do sexually identify under the bisexual umbrella,

there are still certain social contexts that may alter it slightly. What makes this

different from the present study is that this mainly focuses on just the definition of

what one’s own non-monosexual identity means to them while the present study

wishes to go further and explore social factors that play into their non-

monosexual identities.

Regarding more on effects of daily experiences of bisexual and other non-

monosexual individuals, a triple joint research study project was done to view in a

more general view the lived experiences of those who do sexually identify as a

bisexual, the most known sexual identity under the bisexual umbrella. The first of

the join research study project focused on the negative experiences of non-

monosexual individuals. In the study entitled by Flanders, Robinson, Legge, and

Tarasoff (2016), the study focused on more of the micro-aggressions and other

negative interactions and experiences regarding individuals’ sexual identities as

non-monosexuals. Focusing more on the minority stress theory by Meyer (2003),

the reviewed research study showed thematically three levels and that there is

more to their lived experiences than just micro-aggressions. From this research

study certain similarities and differences against the present study can be seen.

It can from this reviewed research study that there are in fact grounded negative

experiences of identity experienced by non-monosexual individuals, a grounded

claim that would be prevalent in the present study’s possible findings and
 51

themes. What makes it different is that this study focused solely on the negative

experiences of the non-monosexual individuals and while this is part of a three

research study joint project, the present study wishes to be more general with the

lived experiences and wishes to also combat one of the glaring limitations of the

study which was the including other non-monosexual individuals for the present

study.

In the second research study as part of the joint research project, the

study by Flanders, Tarasoff, Legge, Robinson, Gos (2016) focused more on the

positive experiences of identity among the bisexual and non-monosexual

individuals. While the first study focused more on Minority Stress Theory by

Meyer (2003), because the second study is more of positively affirming lived

experiences, conceptually it is focused on positive psychology. Similar to the

negative experiences research study, the positive experiences research study

yielded with its thematic analysis a model that focuses on various levels. Also

similar to the relevance of the negative research study to the present study, this

reviewed study is similar for the researcher wishes to focus as well on any

positive lived experiences of the individuals for the present study, only differing in

that it would focus mainly on the social factors as stated in the main objectives,

rather than just general. The researcher wishes to also to try and overcome the

limitation of this study for the present study by having more individuals who are

other non-monosexual identities.

In the third research study from the joint research project, Flanders (2015)

focused the study on the daily experiences of bisexual individuals and the
 52

context of mental health. Going back to Meyer’s Minority Stress Theory (2003),

this reviewed research study focused more on daily experiences of bisexual

individuals and how both positive and negative events during their daily lives in

the context of their sexual identities associate with levels of anxiety and stress.

What makes this research study more relevant to the first two is that it is well-

rounded in ascertaining both positive and negative experiences of the individuals

while the first focused solely on negative while the second focused solely on

positive. What makes this different from the present study is that this focused on

the aspect of mental health, while the present study is focused on the social

factors of family interactions and religious upbringing, which may be factors

towards mental health.

Focusing more on the present studies’ view on monosexuality, one study

is relevant to it. A study by Roberts, Horne and Hoyt (2015) focused more on

how bisexuals go through lived experiences regarding the prevalence of

monosexuality and the idea of monosexism. The study was interesting for it

focused on various factors that are very much relevant to the present study. The

reviewed research study focused on bisexual discrimination and prejudice in

various social factors including the majority of the heterosexual community and

even small social circles such as friends and family. This is highly relevant

towards the present study for it focuses on the lived experiences of non-

monosexual individuals on the context of two major social factors, one of which is

family interactions. While there are various similarities, one of the major

differences of this reviewed research study and the present study is how the
 53

former focuses mainly on negative experiences and prejudices at a general

sense while focusing on specific social groups, the latter will focus on a more

holistic view of both positive and negative experiences while focusing on specific

social factors regarding the lived experiences.

Focusing on more of the specific social factors the present study is basing

itself on, one study shows high relevance towards it. The study researched by

Todd, Oravecz and Vejar (2016) focused specifically on bisexual individuals and

their lived experiences and perceptions of negative discriminations and

prejudices in the context of their family and family members. The research study

is one of the more relevant for it is one of the key studies in helping solidify the

notion of family interactions affecting the bisexual individual family members. The

findings of this study did show various thematic categories to consider and how

there are various negative and invalidating interactions which could cause certain

problems akin to minority stress and bisexual erasure. While there are various

similarities towards the present study, this study is different in that it does not

focus on the secondary social factor of the present study which is religious

upbringing which in this present case’s context is heavily inter-mixed due to the

highly prevalent family and religion-centered culture of the Philippine society,

while the reviewed was more general to a more contemporary American based

society. The limitation that was prevalent in the research study that the

researcher of the present study wishes to address is to ensure that the present

study has individuals from other non-monosexual identities aside from bisexuality

such as pansexuality and fluid.

 54

In line with the previous paragraph of major reviewed research studies

that are highly relevant to the present study, as with regards to religious

upbringing the study by Levy and Harr (2018) focused specifically on bisexual

and pansexual individuals and their lived experiences with a Christian upbringing.

Similar to the previous paragraph, the relevance of this study to the present study

is quite high for it focuses more on the second social factor the researcher

wishes to focus heavily on. Similarities would also include how there is already

established information with regards to how non-heterosexual identities have

been heavily scrutinized and contested against religious beliefs and how there is

almost always a conflict between the sexual identity and the religious beliefs and

or upbringing of a certain person, enough that many individuals change or fully

denounce their religious upbringing. With the similarities, one major difference is

with how it mainly focuses only on religious upbringing and conflict, expounding

mainly also only on Christian denominations. If possible, the researcher for the

present study is hopeful of having individuals who were religiously raised in

different religions aside from Christian denominations such as Buddhist or

Islamic faith. Regarding limitations, the researcher is rather hopeful that the

individuals for the present study may help in divulging more about identity

intersections beyond just sexuality and religion. The research is also hopeful of

finding individuals who are still in the process of resolving the major conflict for

the reviewed research study had all of them resolving their conflict between their

non-monosexual identities and their religious faith and or upbringing.

 55

To summarize this, the various reviewed related Literature shows high

relevance to present study as these would help in further solidifying the

foundation to necessitate the researcher’s main objective which is to explore the

lived experiences of Filipino individuals who identify as non-monosexual with

regards to their family interactions and relations, and with their religious

upbringing and views.

 CHAPTER III
METHOD AND PROCEDURE

In this chapter, the researcher will highlight and expound upon the

Research design used, the sample and sampling techniques administered, the

possible instruments in relation to the methods, and how the data will be properly

gathered and organized and how it will be treated with the corresponding

analytical treatments; thus, the main objective which is to explore the lived

experiences of Filipino individuals who identify as non-monosexual with regards

to their family interactions and relations, and with their religious upbringing and

views.

Research Design

With following a qualitative research approach, the research design the

researcher intends to use to its objective for the present study is a specialized

form of case study but still follows heavily a phenomenological research design.

As stated, while the researcher will be heavily following the phenomenological

research design, it would still take the form of qualitative case studies, which

according to Creswell (2014) use in-depth analysis of a case, in this context an

informant’s experiences, over a period of time. The phenomenological research

design is one form of qualitative research approach in which the study mainly

centers on the lived human experiences as told by the informants of that specific

study (Creswell, 2014; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The design, while may seem to

be somewhat confusing at first, is more of focusing on the experiences of the

 57

informants while the researchers then focus on how these experiences that point

to a certain phenomenon or phenomena are perceived and understood by the

informants while the researcher begin uncovering the experiences via

understanding the experiences and analyzed core meanings or themes for the

main objective of obtaining what is considered as the most essential and

invariant structure or essence. The most commonly used way into doing this

research method is through the use of in-depth interviews; other useful methods

may include diary methods or observations in the effort to collect more and better

information from the informants of the study (Center for Innovation in Research

and Teaching, 2017). These in-depth interviews usually have open ended guide

questions as to not only come off as natural and conversation like to help build

better rapport with the informants but to also make the informants feel at ease

and let them fully describe their lived experiences from their perspectives as to

allow a better coverage of said experiences for analysis of core meanings or

themes.

In further understanding the usefulness of phenomenological research

design, it should be also note of strategies mainly used solely for the purpose of

phenomenological research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). One of the many

strategies to be of use for the researcher is for the researcher themselves

acknowledging in having their own experiences and their use of it in

understanding and exploring their own perspectives of interpretations, and cast it

aside as to not allow any form of bias or assumptions made that may otherwise

influence the informants’ lived experiences and examine it with such influence.
 58

This method refers to the experience exploration as epoche while the latter as

called bracketing of experiences. Another strategy the present researcher can

implement is called phenomenological reduction because it is to ensure that the

researchers will continuously focus and return back into the main essences of the

informants’ lived experiences to fully flesh out the meaning; isolating the

phenomenon. A third strategy is called horizontalization; this refers to how all

sets of data are equally weighed and treated so that they may then be organized

into specific categories or clusters to eventually make themes. This allows even

smaller, less assuming experiences to come into light that may prove to have

larger connotations or support over the themes or clusters present. The last

possible strategy the present researcher can implement in the present study as

to minimize subjective interpretation bias is through imaginative variation which is

more of viewing the themes in more than one perspective.

Hence, in the present study the researcher will answer the questions

regarding how the lived experiences are described and interpreted by the non-

monosexual Filipino informants with regards to family interactions and relations,

and religious views and upbringing, along with the emerging themes and insights.

The phenomenological study through a qualitative case study format will be used

in answering these questions while continuing with following the objectives of the

present study.

Sample and Sampling Techniques

In the present study, the informants are Filipino individuals who sexually

identify as non-monosexual living in the Metro Manila area. Moreover, the

 59

sampling technique the researcher intends to use to find the informants for the

present study is through the use of non-probability sampling; specifically, through

the use of the judgmental or purposive non-probability sampling technique.

According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), purposive sampling is by using certain

criteria for the researchers of a specific study to select out their sample, usually

using either demographic like information or with the views over a certain subject.

This connects well with the present study for the informants have to meet the

certain criteria the researcher will make to ensure they are considered proper

informants for the present study.

Purposive sampling for the following criteria is to follow. The first major

criteria is that the informants must be Filipino born citizens who sexually identify

as non-monosexual; they may or may not still currently going through the

process of fully resolving their sexual identities. The second major criteria is that

they have at least been raised in a religiously affiliated household and may or

may not currently still follow said religious belief or have since or converted to a

new faith or have denounced religion altogether. Because Roman Catholicism

and other Christian denominations are the more prevalent religious faiths in the

Philippines, the researcher may opt to focus on informants of Christian or

Catholic religious upbringing. Other preferable criteria the researcher is looking

for are informants who are within the early adulthood age range of 18 to 35 years

of age, and that they may have since graduated or are still in the process of

gaining their college educational attainment. For this present study, the

researcher will need at least two informants from each of the currently known
 60

sexual identities that make up non-monosexuality; hence, the researcher will

need at least 2 bisexual informants, at least 2 pansexual informants, at least 2

queer informants, and at least 2 fluid informants. The maximum number of

informants the researcher may choose to include in the present study is up to 5.

Research Instruments

In the present study, because the researcher will be using a

phenomenological research study following qualitative case study like format, the

researcher will be mainly using in-depth interviews into gathering information

from the informants for the need of the present study. As it is in-depth interviews,

what is necessary for that kind of information gathering are semi-structured guide

questions as to help the researcher in achieving the main objective which is to

explore the lived experiences of Filipino individuals who identify as non-

monosexual with regards to their family interactions and relations, and with their

religious upbringing and views.

Data Gathering Procedures

In the present study, the researcher will follow an organized flow of

actions in gathering the necessary information from the selected informants of

this study so that the researcher may answer the research questions of the

present study, which revolves around the exploration of experiences of the

informants who are Filipino non-monosexuals and their experiences. Firstly, an

informed consent will be given to the informants prior to the main research
 61

gathering instrument which is in-depth interview. The informed consent will be

mainly in a papered form so that the informants can affix their signatures. In the

possible case that some informants the researcher wishes to have in the present

study cannot physically meet with the researcher, the researcher will plan an

online in-depth interview session. The informed consent for those cases would

be through a PDF with an electronic signature option. The informed consent

forms are made so that the researcher is allowed to not only ask questions

relevant for the present study to the informants but also keeping well in mind that

all information will be kept in full confidentiality and only for the sole purpose of

the present study. The informed consent is overall used to uphold the rules set in

research ethics.

Once the informed consent has been read through and been signed by

the informants, the researcher will still need to ask the informants permission to

allow them to record the interviews. Even if it was stated in the informed consent,

if the informant is not comfortable with their interview sessions being recorded,

the researcher will properly comply with the wishes of the informants. Through

the use of the guide questions made by the researcher, the in-depth interviews

will be done with the questions and any follow up questions the researcher has in

mind to ask the informants; the researcher will wish to ensure that the in-depth

interview feels more like a conversation rather than just a strict interview as to not

only build rapport with the informants but also make them feel comfortable

enough as to allow them to freely talk so as that the researcher may pick up on

any interesting information. After every interview session, the researcher will
 62

debrief the informants regarding the true nature of the present study. Incentives

will be given to the informants in return for their time and effort with the

information the researcher will be getting from them.

Analysis of Data

In the present study, the researcher will be using a qualitative research

approach via phenomenological design using a case study format; the research

design will be using in-depth interviews using guide and follow-up question to

gain the necessary information or data from the informants necessary for the

present study which is about the exploration of experiences among Filipino non-

monosexuals within the context of experiences of family interactions and

relations, and with their religious upbringing and views. For the information that

the researcher will get from the informants, analysis of the given data is crucial in

understanding the information into something more organized and usable for the

sake of the present study; thus, the researcher will follow the steps on how to

properly analyze and interpret the qualitative data from the in-depth interviews of

the informants (Creswell, 2012). As suggested by Creswell (2012), the steps are

there to help researchers properly plan out and conduct the data analysis for the

studies; it is not inflexible or standard but a guide to helping the researchers in

the analysis so some steps may be rearranged or omitted fully if not necessary

for the study.

The first step in the analysis and interpretation of the informants’

information into qualitative data is by organizing the collected data from the in-
 63

depth interviews. After organization, the second part of the first step is data

transcription where the collected data from the sessions with the informants are

transcribed. This would not only include the words stated by the informants but

also include any field notes or observations made by the researcher, along with

the guide questions and any follow up questions that flowed out from the

sessions. The third part of the first step is for the researcher to fully agree on

what form of analysis method will be used for the qualitative data; either analysis

by hand or analysis using a computer program. Once there is an agreed decision

on how to analyze the qualitative data, the researcher may begin the second

step.

The second step involved coding the data. Firstly, the researcher must do

a preliminary exploration of the organized data as to have a general

understanding or feel as to what will commence when the coding and further

steps begin. It is essential for the researcher to always read through the data

thoroughly and also immerse onto the details; writing short memos is also

beneficial as it not only guides the possible path but also brings about the

researcher’s sense of critical thinking. Next is the coding proper; this would entail

looking into certain segments of the interviews or field notes present and label

them with a code which may then address certain topics. After listing down the

codes, the researcher will then need to ensure that the codes are properly

backed up by the data given and not just because the researcher was trying to

forcibly make assumptions without proper empirical evidence.

 64

The third step is to start building themes. Themes are aggregations of

similar codes found by the researcher after extensive analysis of the data from

the informants. Usually for research purposes, only five to seven themes are

necessary for the study as to not be redundant over similar ideas while also

ensuring that the researcher can provide a more vivid description of the

information given. These descriptions help shape the experiences of the

informants better in line with not only the themes in trying to answer the research

questions posited by the researcher but also in line with the overall feel of

qualitative research. The researcher will always uphold the need to show

empirical evidence, usually by quotes in the data, as to prove the validity of the

descriptions and themes created during the analysis. Useful strategies from this

point can be layering the themes into broad, major and minor themes, or

interrelate the themes to see a possible chronological sequence.

The fourth step is to then represent the findings in a more cohesive table

or narrative. The main way this can be done is through a narrative discussion or

summary of the themes and findings. The fifth step would then be to start

interpreting the findings into finding larger meanings behind the phenomenon

present in the data. This would entail the use of various approaches such as

comparisons to the review of related literature or through personal views and

reflections. The sixth and final step is to have the findings validated for good

accuracy with well-substantiated evidence. These can be done through several

methods such as triangulation which is through verification from different

individuals who know about the study and the overall content of it. Another can
 65

be through member checking in which the researcher would ask the informants in

the study to check and verify the accuracy using the reported findings. One can

also do this by asking someone outside the present study via external audit.
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 APPENDICES

Guide Questions

The following are the guide questions the researcher will be using.

1. What is your sexual orientation?

2. What is your understanding of your sexual identity?

a. How would you describe your sexual identity?

b. Would you say it is cohesive to what a large number of people

would agree upon as the definition?

3. What must have it been like to have finally come to knowing and accepting

your current sexual identity?

a. Can you describe to me your journey?

b. Were there any significant moments in your life that impacted your

resolution towards your sexual identity?

c. When did you fully affirm your current sexual orientation?

d. Are you still currently in the process of fully affirming it?

4. Have you ever felt like your sexual identity was not well understood by

others?

a. Can you give me certain examples from your experiences?

5. Has there ever been a point or points in your life where you feel the need to

validate or affirm your sexual identity as an authentic sexual identity?

a. Have you ever experienced moments in where you have

questioned your own sexual identity?

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b. Have you ever experienced moments in where people have made

you question your own sexual identity?

6. Who have been there for you in actively supporting you and your sexual

identity, along with your journey towards understanding and accepting it?

a. Can you describe as to how they were supporting you?

7. Does your family know about your sexual identity?

a. If not, may I know as to why they do not know yet?

b. If yes, what was the experience like coming out to your family?

8. What is your general family dynamic with your family currently?

a. Have there been any changes from how it was before to what it is

now?

9. What is your relationship like with your mother?

a. Does she currently know about your sexual identity?

b. Description of relationship

c. Positive interactions

d. Negative interactions

10. What is your relationship like with father?

a. Does he currently know about your sexual identity?

b. Description of relationship

c. Positive interactions

d. Negative interactions

11. What is your relationship like with your siblings?

a. Do they currently know about your sexual identity?

 75

b. Description of relationship

c. Positive interactions

d. Negative interactions

12. What is your relationship like with your extended family members (e.g.

Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc.)?

a. Do they currently know about your sexual identity?

b. Description of relationship

c. Positive interactions

d. Negative interactions

13. Regarding any of the negative interactions you have experiences with

family interactions and about your sexual identity, how did you cope with

them?

a. Any certain experiences?

b. How would you describe the feelings in those moments in your life?

14. What has been your experiences growing up with a religious upbringing?

15. What is your current relationship with religion?

a. Have they differed greatly since fully accepting your sexual identity?

b. If so, what major experiences have happened that may have

caused you to think differently about your religious upbringing?

c. Are you currently still in the process of finding resolution from the

potential conflict?
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16. What has been your negative experiences knowing that you grew up in a

religion while accepting your sexual identity?

a. Can you tell me any certain memories that describe it?

b. Coping strategies regarding negative experiences.

17. What has been your positive experiences knowing that you grew up in a

religion while accepting your sexual identity?

a. Can you tell me any certain memories that describe it?