Philippine E-Journals

The Lived Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth During their Secondary Education

Adrian Amistad

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

This study aimed to understand the lived experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth during their secondary education and to give meaning to these experiences. The nine participants composed of five females – all identifying as bisexuals, and four males – three identifying as gays, and one as bisexual. All participants of the study were recruited through snowball sampling. As a phenomenological study, this research employed the use of semi-structured interview method with a grand tour question to gather the narratives of the participants, and the use of thematic analysis for the analysis of the narratives. Findings of the study revealed that the themes generated by their negative experiences of the participants are discrimination, bullying, gender conflicts with beliefs, isolation, and identity crisis. The theme generated by their positive experiences is acceptance. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommends to strongly educate our society on gender and sexual orientation, that professional organizations strongly support the enactment of the SOGIE Equality Bill, as well as other policies that aims to protect the rights of the LGBT, that mental heath professionals provide aid to LGBT youth victims of bullying and discrimination, that schools enforce the Anti-Bullying and Anti-Discrimination Law, and that researchers develop more studies from the findings of this study.