Philippine Journal of Psychology, 2013, 46(2), 49-59

Copyright @ 2013 Psychological Association of the Philippines

Further Validation of the

Genderism and
Transphobia Scale
in the Philippines

Raymond Aquino Macapagal

University of the Philippines - Diliman

The Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS) (Hill & Willoughby,

2005) measures negativity toward gender nonconformity. Previous
work using a Philippine sample by Willoughby and colleagues (2011)
established its reliability and initial validity anchored on gender and
sexuality differences. The current study builds on this research by
investigating the scale's construct validity through (a) associations with
homonegativity and homopositivity and (b) a measure of intergroup
contact with trans people. One hundred eighty seven Filipino university
students answered the GTS, the Homonegativity Scale (HNS) (Morrison,
Parriag, & Morrison, 1999), and the Homopositivity Scale (HPS)
(Morrison & Bearden, 2007), and reported the number of transpeople
in their friendship network. Results showed that participants with
more transnegative attitudes had higher homonegativity and lower
homopositivity. Furthermore, number of transgender friends was
correlated with attitudes toward transgenderism but not attitudes toward
homosexuality. Finally, as known in the literature, birth-assigned males
were more transnegative than birth-assigned females.

Keywords: genderism, transphobia, transgender, homonegativity,

homopositivity

Transgender people, those whose “identities or practices . . .

cross over, cut across, move between, or otherwise queer socially
constructed sex/gender boundaries” (Stryker, 1994, p. 251), are often

Correspondence concerning this article can be addressed to Raymond Aquino Macapagal, Center for International
Studies, Benton Hall, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Philippines; telefax: +632 4267573;
email: batadklp@gmail.com
50 Philippine Validation of GTS

targets of various expressions of negative attitudes from the cisgender

majority throughout the world (Landen & Innala, 2000; Norton &
Herek, 2012; Tee & Hegarty, 2006; Winter et al., 2009). And, although
transpeople (because of their visibility) can be the easiest targets for
many types of physical and psychological violence, most studies of
prejudice and discrimination against sexual and gender minorities
focus more on lesbians, gays and bisexuals rather than transgenders
(Turner, Whittle, & Combs, 2009). These negative attitudes, according
to Hill (2002, cited in Hill & Willoughby, 2005) can be studied using
an ABC model. The affective component is called ‘transphobia’, which
is an “emotional disgust toward individuals who do not conform
to society’s gender expectations” (p. 533) similar to homophobia.
The behavioral component is gender-bashing, which refers to the
physical and/or psychological violence directed towards gender non-
conforming people. The cognitive component is termed ‘genderism’,
which is “an ideology that reinforces the negative evaluation of gender
non-conformity or an incongruence between sex and gender” (p. 534).
These have also been seen to be associated with being male, traditional
gender role beliefs, homophobia (Hill & Willoughby, 2005), moral
dogmatism, low self-esteem, ego-defensiveness (Willoughby et al.,
2011), right-wing authoritarianism, aggression proneness, religious
fundamentalism, sexism (benevolent and hostile), and rape myth
acceptance (Nagoshi et al., 2008). The discrimination and prejudice
experienced by transpeople have been linked to negative outcomes
ranging from sadness, disappointment, anger (Nadal, Skolnik, &
Wong, 2012), feelings of societal rejection (Winter Sasot & King,
2007), lack of access to health care, substance abuse (Grant et al.,
2010), hate crime victimization (Lombardi et al., 2002) to suicide
(Clements-Nolle, Marx, & Katz, 2006).
Efforts at finding ways to reduce discrimination against
transpeople have drawn upon Contact Hypothesis research. Gordon
Allport’s (1954) hypothesis asserts that interpersonal contact between
two groups (under appropriate circumstances) reduces the negative
attitudes one group feels for the other. A few studies in Europe (Tee
& Hegarty, 2006), North America (Hill & Willoughby, 2005) and
Asia (King, Winter, & Webster, 2009) have found that the majority
cisgender people held less transnegativity when they had had previous
 Macapagal 51

contact transpeople.
The Philippines, an Asian-Pacific archipelago with ancient
(Brewer, 1999) and extant (Johnson, 1997) transgender traditions,
provides a rich arena for the study of how the general populace interacts
with gender minorities. Whereas non-stigmatized transgender
identities (with revered religious roles) existed in various areas during
pre-colonial times, the spread of Catholicism by the Spanish colonizers
worked toward the denigration of the native religion and its shamans
(Winter, 2005). This religious (coupled with medical) stigmatization
of sexual and gender minorities (Tan, 1994) might explain why the
predominantly Catholic Filipino populace looks negatively upon gay
and trans people (Manalastas & del Pilar, 2005). However, Willoughby
and colleagues (2011) found that self-reported religiosity was not
related to Filipino students’ attitudes toward gender non-conformity.
The Genderism and Transphobia Scale, a 32-item measure
developed in the United States by Darryl Hill and Brian Willoughby in
2005, aims to measure people’s attitudes toward gender transgression.
It was subsequently validated in China (Winter, Webster, & Cheung,
2008), and Spain (Carrera-Fernández et al., 2013). In 2011, Willoughby
and colleagues evaluated the GTS in various sites in the United States,
Canada and the Philippines. The four studies we conducted involved
(a) investigating transnegative attitudes among mental health
professionals in the United States, (b) studying the effects of certain
social psychological variables on attitudes toward gender conformity
in the United States, (c) generating a comprehensive model to
predict genderism and transphobia in Canada, and (d) examining the
reliability, validity and factor structure of the GTS in the Philippines.
With the Filipino university student sample, we found that the GTS
was a reliable measure, with preliminary evidence of validity based on
gender (males were more transnegative than females; gender-variant
people were less transnegative than non-gender-variant people)
and sexual orientation (heterosexuals were more transnegative than
non-heterosexuals). The resulting factor structure of the GTS in
the Philippines was also seen to be markedly different from the one
previously seen with the Canadian sample. Three main factors were
identified, with several items loading on more than one factor. This
suggests that Filipinos’ evaluations of transgenderism are more
52 Philippine Validation of GTS

complex than those in the West. Morality and shame was the most
prominent factor, possibly owing to the strong religious and cultural
condemnation of transgendered behaviors. The second factor was
labeled “Teasing”, which is a common experience of many transpeople
(especially the bakla or male-to-female trans) as targets of mockery
from cisgender people. The third factor, Violence, is similar to the
previously-identified Gender-bashing dimension. However, items
loading onto “Violence” seemed to reflect strong negative judgments
rather than overt acts of aggression.
This current study builds upon the abovementioned initial findings
by working to establish the construct validity of the GTS. Owing to the
known relationship between transphobia and homophobia (Nagoshi
et al., 2008), convergent validity can be ascertained by administering
the GTS with measures of attitudes toward gay people like the
Homopositivity Scale (HPS) (Morrison & Bearden, 2007) and the
Homonegativity Scale (HNS) (Morrison, Parriag, & Morrison, 1999). It
is hypothesized that GTS scores will significantly correlate (negatively)
with the HPS, and (positively) with the HNS. Aside from these scales,
a more behavioral validation is also employed. In consonance with the
Contact Hypothesis, it is hypothesized that people with more trans
friends will score lower on the GTS. Moreover, the common finding
that men are more transnegative than women will be verified.

METHOD

Participants

One hundred eighty seven undergraduate students from a large

Philippine university volunteered to participate in this study. Their
ages ranged from 16 to 45, with a mean age of 18.3 years (SD=3.0).
When asked about sex assigned at birth, 84 reported to be male, and
103 female. Five participants felt that their current sexual identity
was different from their assigned birth sex. With regard to sexual
orientation, 165 were attracted to the other sex and 20 were attracted
to either the same sex (5) or both sexes (15). Two participants did not
disclose their sexual orientation.
 Macapagal 53

Measures

Genderism and Transphobia. The participants completed the 32-

item GTS, an English-language measure developed in Canada (Hill &
Willoughby, 2005) and and is available for use by anyone without need
for monetary compensation to the developers. For this sample, the
Cronbach’s alpha was a high 0.94.
Homonegativity. The six-item HNS (Morrison, Parriag, &
Morrison, 1999) measures “negative attitudes toward gay men and
lesbians” (p. 111). This scale showed good internal consistency with a
Cronbach’s alpha of 0.86.
Homopositivity. The participants also answered the HPS
(Morrison & Bearden, 2007), a 9-item scale which measures people’s
“endorsement of positive stereotypes about gay men” (p. 63). The
Cronbach’s alpha for this sample was also a high 0.88.
Number of transpeople in friendship networks. As a measure
of contact with transpeople, the respondents were also asked this
question: “I have this many transgender / transsexual friends (please
give an exact number) _______.” Seventeen respondents did not
answer the question.

Procedure

Participants were recruited from various general education

classes in a university setting following prescribed ethical standards
for conducting research with students. With the permission of the class
instructors, an announcement was made asking for study volunteers.
Students were made to understand that their participation would be
anonymous, confidential, and would not influence their grades in any
way. Completion of the self-administered questionnaires took around
20-25 minutes. The students who answered the questionnaires were
thanked for joining the study. The researcher’s email address was also
written on the board in case anyone had any other queries about the
study.
54 Philippine Validation of GTS

RESULTS

Birth-assigned Sex

As expected, birth-assigned males had significantly higher mean

GTS scores than birth-assigned females (131.0 vs. 110.5; t(184)=4.86,
p=0.001). Males (M=16.9) also scored higher on the HNS than the
females (M=14.0): a significant difference, t(185)=3.10, p=0.002).
Females on the average scored significantly higher than males on the
HPS (39.5 vs. 32.6; t(185)=5.02, p=0.001). That is, birth-assigned
males were more transnegative, more homonegative and less
homopositive than birth-assigned females.

Scale Intercorrelations

Consistent with my hypotheses, the GTS is significantly correlated

with both the HNS and the HPS, in the theorized directions (see Table
1). GTS scores were positively correlated with HNS scores, r(187)=
.771, p=0.001. That is, more transnegative people were also more
homonegative. Also, GTS scores negatively correlated (although to a
lesser extent) with HPS scores, r(187)=-.137, p=0.031. That is, more
transnegative people are also less homopositive. HNS scores also
negatively correlated with HPS scores, r(187)=-.146, p=0.023. That is,
more homonegative people were also less homopositive.

Table 1. Correlations Among GTS, HNS and HPS (N=187)

Scale HNS HPS

GTS .771** -.137*

HNS -.146*
* p ≤ .05
** p ≤ .001
 Macapagal 55

Contact with Transpeople

The participants had an average of four friends whom they

considered to be transgender, with no significant difference between
the number of trans friends of male and female participants. GTS scores
also negatively correlated with number of trans friends, r(170)=-.129,
p=0.047. That is, participants with more trans friends were found to
be less transnegative. Moreover, HPS and HNS did not correlate with
the number of trans friends. This outcome suggests that there could be
differences in the nature of people’s attitudes toward sexual minorities
and gender minorities.

DISCUSSION

The results found above provide further evidence of the validity of

Hill and Willoughby’s Genderism and Transphobia Scale in measuring
attitudes toward trans people in the Philippines. First, it demonstrates
the well-established finding that males hold more negative attitudes
toward sexual and gender minorities than females. This has been
theorized to be due to how men are particularly threatened by how
transgendered individuals fundamentally challenge heteronormative
assumptions about the nature of self-identity (Nagoshi et al., 2008).
Second, the GTS’s positive correlation with the HNS and negative
correlation with the HPS gives evidence of convergent validity. These
results have also been attained by previous studies (e.g. Nagoshi et
al., 2008; Costa & Davies, 2012; Walch et al., 2012). To the extent
that gender identity and sexual orientation are conflated in Philippine
culture and language (Tan, 1995), this finding is expected.
Third, a more behavioral measure (interacting with transpeople)
has also been seen to be correlated with the GTS. This finding echoes
previous studies (e.g. Hill & Willoughby, 2005; King, Winter, &
Webster, 2009; Tee & Hegarty, 2006) that people who had had
previous contact or acquaintance with transpeople harbored less
transnegativity. Evidence for divergent validity can also be drawn
from the finding that HPS and HNS scores were not correlated to the
number of trans friends that the respondents had.
As previously established by Willoughby and colleagues (2011),
56 Philippine Validation of GTS

the GTS as a whole is a good measure of Filipinos’ attitudes toward

transpeople. However, since the participants of this current study
were also university students, future validation studies might do
well to investigate attitudes of non-university populations. A Filipino
translation of the GTS should also be done, in order to be able to
measure the attitudes of the many who have difficulty comprehending
the English language. This Filipino translation study should also be
coupled with a factor analysis in order to provide more insight to
the factors previously identified by Willoughby et al. (2011). Also,
future studies should look at whether the GTS will correlate with
other measures of attitudes toward trans people such as the Attitudes
Toward Trangendered Individuals Scale by Walch and colleagues
(2012). Moreover, behavioral validations (looking at whether high
GTS scores predict future instances of anti-trans discrimination or
aggression) are warranted given promising evidence from this study’s
contact measure. Finally, on a more hopeful note, further studies on
contact should aim to discover what types of interaction can reduce
transprejudice and increase transpositivity in cisgender people.

AUTHOR NOTE

Big queer besos to Eric Julian Manalastas for his fabulous feedback
throughout the paper-writing process, and to Geraldine Paguntalan
for tirelessly encoding the data. Tranny thanks also to Diwa Malaya
Quiñones for helping out with the analyses, and to my colleagues at the
UP Psychology Lounge for hosting such fun, fruit-full research parties.

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