A Catholic University’s Attitude towards LGBT Community and its Relationship to Religiosity and Gender Role Belief (original) (raw)

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community undoubtedly face hate crimes and prejudice as they defy societal norms through their diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in a world where most people still hold onto their conservative views in the twenty-first century. Hence, understanding the impact of religiosity and gender role belief on attitudes is crucial, especially in a patriarchal, religion-shaped country. Therefore, this study aims to determine the attitude of Saint Mary's University towards the LGBT community, in relation to individuals' religiosity and gender role beliefs. Using descriptive-comparative-correlational research design, this study employed a questionnaire distributed to a total of 300 respondents in Saint Mary's University consisting of senior high school and college students, and faculty and staff. The data were then gathered and analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Moreover, thematic analysis was used for the qualitative interpretation. Based on the result, the study found that the respondents' attitudes towards the LGBT community were positive, with high religiosity and very low gender role belief. Furthermore, both religiosity and gender role belief attained a significant relationship, a moderately low negative correlation and high positive correlation, respectively. However, gender and religious groups have different attitudes towards the LGBT community, while age and designation show no significant differences. Other factors that affect the attitudes of the respondents include personal opinion, principles and realizations in life, still unsure, environment, LGBT community itself, socio-cultural norms and traditions, and media. Henceforth, this study serves as a basis, promotion, and program proposal of school programs to support the community's third sex members' equality and access to opportunities in showcasing their talents and skills. The school program proposal is entitled Project BAHAGHARI (rainbow), intended to raise awareness for the Marian community through symposium and to showcase the culture and creativity of the third sex community through program.