LGBT Psychology

Lopez, Dennis
Acosta, John Dave
Introduction
Labels are so powerful it can be used to discriminate
and oppress people. Like how German Nazi’s used the
word “Aryan race” to mean superior and “Jews” and
“homosexual” to justify their mass murder of what they
called as “inferior” race.
However, labels can also empower people to claim
their space in our society, especially in the political sphere.
Language can be used to avoid offense or disadvantage to
certain groups of people like using “person with
disabilities” instead of disabled, “African American”
instead of ‘blacks’, and “LGBT” instead of ‘homosexuals’.
Views on LGBT in History
Sexual and emotional attraction towards the same sex
has been recorded throughout history of mankind. In China
600 BCE, they used the terms ‘pleasures of the bitten
peach’ and ‘brokeback’. In Japan, they have ‘shudo’ or
‘nanshoku’. ‘Kathoey’ is used in Thailand to refer to lady
boys. In Philippines we have the ‘babaylan’ and the
‘catalonan’ who mostly women priest, but some are males
who lived their lives as women.
Society’s attitude towards homosexuality and other
gender variants change through history. In ancient Greek,
all males are expected to take on a younger male lover in a
practice called pederasty. Some societies, like the
Indigenous Native Americans, accepted and celebrated
what they called ‘two-spirited’ person in a dance to the
“Berdache”.
However, later cultures see it as a sin following the
Abrahamic Religion which branded it as sodomy, a crime
against nature. As these cultures colonized other
countries, it enforced its belief systems of viewing same
sex attractions as a sin through violence such as killing
homosexuals through burning, stoning, or being fed to the
dogs.
 Homosexuality was classified as an illness in the 19th
century as a basis for them to legally persecute
homosexuals, imprison, and commit them to a mental
institution. An example of this percussion is that of Alan
Turing, the father of modern computing, who was
prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts. He was sentenced
with chemical castration treatment, and he later died
through cyanide poisoning.
As science advanced through years of extensive
research. the APA removed homosexuality as a
psychiatric disorder or I sickness in I973. This
decision was after many years of struggle from the
gay and lesbian liberation movement. APA finally
declared that being attracted to people of the same
sex is a natural variation of the human experience.
and it does not make anyone any less of a healthy
and functioning human being. Now that society is
more accepting towards the LGBT. new terms and
labels have been used to cater to everyone.
The ABC’s of the LGBTQIA+
◦ Lesbian - woman who are emotionally and sexually
attracted to women
◦ Gay – men who are emotionally and sexually
attracted to me
◦ Bisexual – man or woman who are emotionally and
sexually attracted to men or women
◦ Transgender – when your gender identity (how you
feel) is different from your physical sex (male/female)
◦ Queer – used by people who celebrate all gender
identities, can also mean someone who do not want to
be restricted as Lesbian, Gay, or Bi.
 Intersex – people who were born with sex genitals or
chromosome patterns that do not fit the typical male or
female body.
 Asexual/Ally- asexual are people who do not feel sexual
attraction to anyone, but it does not mean that they do
not engage in romantic or sexual relationships. Allies
are straight or heterosexual people who are fighting for
LGBT rights.
 Plus + - the plus sign refers to all sexualities that do not
fit in the LGBTQI spectrum.
Knowledge on the human sexuality is still evolving so
there are many terms that pop up. Here are few more to
help us become more inclusive:
 Androgynous – people whose gender expression (their
physical appearance) may or may not be distinctly male
or female.
 Gender – your internal sense of being masculine,
feminine or neither.
 Gender identity – how you feel, man, woman, or
neither
 Sexual orientation – your emotional and sexual
attraction to a person.
 Sex assigned at birth – your given sex when were born
based on your sex organ.
 Cisgender – when your gender identity matches with
the sex you are assigned at birth.
 Non-binary – people who do not feel like a boy or a
girl; they may feel like they are both or neither, so
sometimes they use the pronouns they, them, and theirs.
Understanding Transgenderism
Society attaches a lot of meaning: to our biological sex or
physical sex. Patents unknowingly set up a gender-based
pattern of raising their children upon knowing the biological
sex of their babies. Pink for girls and blue for boys is a
reflection of our heteronormative culture wherein we expect
females to be feminine and males to be masculine.
This limited view on sexuality make. it harder for those who
do not fit in the box of masculinity and femininity, like the
lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. However, it makes it so much
more difficult for the transgender people, those who feel
like they went born In the an body or given the wrong
biological sex.
Who is a Transgender?
The APA define transgender as “an
umbrella term for persons who gender
identity, gender expression, or behavior
does not conform to that typically
associated with the sex to which they were
assigned at birth”.
This means that a transgender person does not feel
comfortable in their biological sex
like a person who is born male but feels like a female,
and a person who is born female
may feel like he is male. This "feeling" or gender
identity is not something that changes
through time, but is a feeling that they have since
childhood. This creates a problem for a
heteronormative society wherein everyone is expected
and forced to fit in the boxes of male
masculinity and female femininity.
However, history tells us that in different cultures
across the world and in different
times in our history, there are people who lived
their life expressing a gender that is different
from their biological sex. This gender
nonconformity or gender crossings were celebrated
by the Native Americans through the "berdache" or
the two-spirited people. We also have
our own "babaylan" or "catalonan', precolonial
priests who are mostly females but some are
males who lived their lives as female priests.
 The word transgender is also used as an umbrella term,
this means that there are many identities under this term.
Transsexuals, for example, is often used in the medical
field to refer to people whose gender identity is different
from their biological sex and they may want to change
their body, so it resembles how they feel about their gender
identity. A biologically male person may feel like she is a
woman since she was just a child and in adulthood, she
may choose to have a "hormonal replacement therapy or
sex reassignment surgery". Medical advancements have
helped transgender people live a full life; however, it can
be a long, difficult, and expensive process.
Other sexualities under the transgender umbrella term includes:
 FTM -female to male, a person whose biological sex is female and
has transitioned to living his life as a male
 MTF - male to female, a person whose biological sex is male and
has transitioned to living her life as a female;
 Crossdressing - some people want to dress as the opposite gender
from time to time, however, unlike the transsexual, they are
comfortable identifying with their biological sex;
 Drag kings and queens- these are people who dress as the opposite
gender for entertainment which they do out of passion or for work;
and
 Gender queer - these are people who feel like their gender does
not fit the gender binary view that is limited to the male or female
category because they feel that these are too restrictive.
The Transitioning Process
When a person realizes that he or she may be a
transgender, a psychologist can guide
the person through the transition especially
when a person wants to go through permanent
changes like sex reassignment surgery. In
some countries, transitioning is covered by
their medical insurance, and they get support
from their employers and families which is
very crucial during transitioning because it
takes years to fully transition.
There are transgender people who cannot have or
do not want to have hormonal
replacement therapy or sex reassignment surgery
because of personal, economic, or cultural reasons
and that is okay. Transitioning to another gender is
a very challenging process for many transgender
people because of the social stigma,
discrimination, medical cost. accessibility of
medical treatment and support, oppressive laws in
each country, and the threat of violence from
prejudiced people.
Some countries allow for transgender people to
change their legal gender from male
to female or female to male. This recognition is a
product of decades of collective effort of
the transgender community and the LGBTQ+
community. However, Philippines still lack the
laws and the medical capacity to support
transgender people in living their full potential.
The proper use of pronouns, he or she, should be
observed when talking to a transgender
person to show respect as a decent human being. Often,
when a person is clearly presenting
herself as a female by the way they dress and carry
themselves, it is safe to assume that they
want to use "she" and "her". The same goes for the
transgender men who is clearly presenting
himself as a man, you may use "him" or "her".
However, it is always a good practice to ask
them for their preferred pronoun instead of assuming
but do so in a polite way.
Summary
Labels are important especially in the
acceptance and promotion of human rights.
The evolution of the terms used to describe
people who are emotionally and sexually
attracted to the same sex have evolved
through time. From homosexuality to gay,
and to LGBTQIA+, let us remember that
we are all humans, born free and equal.