A survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) indicated that 8 in 10 Filipinos see gays and lesbians as “trustworthy.”
SWS said of the 1,200 surveyed, 79% agreed with the statement that “gays or lesbians are just as trustworthy as any other Filipino.”
The survey also said 73% believe that “gays or lesbians have contributed a lot” to society’s progress. SWS noted that this is an improvement from nearly a decade ago.
In a 2013 SWS poll, 67% of Filipinos noted that gays and lesbians were trustworthy, while 18% said otherwise, the public pollster said.
Reyna Valmores, the chairperson of LGBTQIA+ organization Bahaghari Philippines, quoted by ABS-CBN News, said it is “positive” to see that many Filipinos find gays and lesbians as trustworthy.
SWS said the 2023 nationwide poll, conducted from March 26 to 29, 2023, also revealed that 40% wanted to change their gay or lesbian family members to become straight men or women.
And some 43% considered acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) as a “sickness of gays and lesbians,” while 26 percent said being gay or lesbian is “contagious.”
Valmores however said the notion that AIDS is a sickness of gays is “not correct.”
Valmores described the negative views as a reflection of the reality that many members of the LGBTQIA+ community are still discriminated against and face abuse and violence, ABS-CBN News said.
“Therefore, we need to move forward when it comes to gender education and have a bill that will protect all Filipinos against discrimination: the SOGIE Equality Bill,” Valmores sais.
A separate SWS survey showed that a “record high” 65 percent of Filipinos find Muslims trustworthy.
The poll was also conducted from March 26 to 29, 2023, and had a sample size of 1,200 with an error margin of ±2.8 percent.