Homonegativity in Southeast Asia: Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam

Abstract

How are sexual minorities like lesbians, gay men, and their sexualities viewed in the different societies of Southeast Asia? Previous studies have been limited by the reliance on data from university students and other non-representative samples, with little comparability across countries in the region. This research brief addresses this gap by comparing attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and about lesbian and gay sexualities in six Southeast Asian countries using nationally representative survey data. Combined data from the World Values Survey (total n = 9,182 respondents from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) indicated that many Southeast Asians reject lesbians or gay men as neighbors, with the most homonegative attitudes to be found in Indonesia (66%) and Malaysia (59%), compared to

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Asia-Pacic Social Science Review (2017) 17(1): 25-33
Copyright © 2017 by De La Salle University
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Homonegavity in Southeast Asia:
Atudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men in Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
and Vietnam
Eric Julian Manalastas
University of the Philippines
eric.manalastas@gmail.com
Timo Tapani Ojanen
Thammasat University, Thailand
Beatriz A. Torre
University of the Philippines
Raanakorn Ratanashevorn
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Bryan Choong Chee Hong
B-Change Foundaon
Vizla Kumaresan
MindWorks Psychology and Counselling Centre, Malaysia
Vigneswaran Veeramuthu
University of Malaya, Malaysia
Abstract How are sexual minorities like lesbians, gay men, and their sexualities viewed in the different societies of Southeast
Asia? Previous studies have been limited by the reliance on data from university students and other non-representative
samples, with little comparability across countries in the region. This research brief addresses this gap by comparing
attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and about lesbian and gay sexualities in six Southeast Asian countries using nationally
representative survey data. Combined data from the World Values Survey (total n = 9,182 respondents from Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) indicated that many Southeast Asians reject lesbians or gay
men as neighbors, with the most homonegative attitudes to be found in Indonesia (66%) and Malaysia (59%), compared to

26 E.J. Manalastas, et al
The system of negative attitudes, beliefs, feelings,
and behaviors toward lesbians, gay men, and same-sex
sexualities is called homonegativity (McDermott &
Blair, 2012). Homonegativity, also sometimes called
homophobia, heterosexism, or anti-gay prejudice,
forms part of the larger climate of social stigma faced
by sexual and gender minorities in many parts of the
world (Herek & McLemore, 2013; Lottes & Grollman,
2010; Stulhofer & Rimac, 2009). This research brief
contributes to this area of inquiry in the Asia Pacic
context by presenting a cross-country comparison of
attitudes toward lesbians, gay men, and lesbian/gay
sexualities in six Southeast Asian countries using
nationally representative data.
Homonegativity: Contexts and Correlates
Despite the existence of indigenous gender and
sexual diversity traditions in various Southeast Asian
societies (Wieringa, 2010), as well as the scientic
recognition by scientic professionals in Asia that
being lesbian and gay are normal variants of human
sexuality (e.g., Hong Kong Psychological Society,
2012; Psychological Association of the Philippines,
2011; Rao & Jacob, 2012), stigma against lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations
persist. Globally, LGBT people and other gender
and sexual minorities experience criminalization,
systemic violence, discrimination in employment and
health care, lack of legal recognition concerning their
families and partnerships, and restricted freedoms of
expression, association, and peaceful assembly (Ofce
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, 2012).
In Southeast Asia, same-sex sexual acts are
criminalized under the law in Malaysia, Singapore,
and Brunei Darussalam, as well as in South Sumatra
and the Aceh province in Indonesia (Carroll, 2016).
relatively less rejecting nations like Thailand (40%), Singapore (32%), Vietnam (29%), and the Philippines (28%). Same-
sex sexuality was least acceptable, based on a moral justiability measure, among Indonesians, followed by Vietnamese
and Malaysians. Singaporeans, Thais, and Filipinos were the least rejecting of lesbian and gay sexual orientations in the
region. We also explored a number of established correlates of homonegative attitudes in each country, including gender,
age, educational attainment, and religiosity.
Keywords: social attitudes, homosexuality, homonegativity, anti-gay prejudice, Southeast Asia
Violence in the form of hate crimes (UNDP & USAID,
2014b) and bullying of children and youth perceived
to be LGBT have been documented (UNESCO, 2015).
There is only one country in the region that protects
its citizens from workplace discrimination on the
basis of gender identity or sexual orientation through
a national law: Thailand, as of 2015. Despite the
often remarked cultural valuation of kinship, family
ties, and marriage, nowhere in Southeast Asia are
same-sex partnerships legally recognized, and joint
adoption by lesbian and gay couples remains a legal
impossibility (Sanders, 2013, 2015). And although
gender reassignment surgery is available in countries
like Thailand, transgender citizens cannot change
their legal markers in ofcial documents and remain
vulnerable to violence, harassment, and discrimination
(UNDP & USAID, 2014c).
One component of the social ecology faced by
sexual and gender minorities is public opinion toward
them and their sexualities (Herek, 2004, 2007; Herek
& McLemore, 2013). These social attitudes may range
from afrmation and acceptance (homopositivity) to
disapproval, denial, and denigration (homonegativity).
Such public opinion provides important basic
descriptive information about how LGBT citizens are
viewed and accepted (or rejected) at a particular point
in a society’s history. Public opinion has been used
as a core component in popular metrics that measure
a country’s level of friendliness to LGBT people,
such as the Gay Happiness Index (Lemke, Tornow,
& PlanetRomeo.com, 2015). Other studies have
shown that public opinion, particularly low levels of
homonegative social attitudes, is a key predictor for the
eventual legalization of same-sex marriage in a country
(Badgett, 2009). The perception of homonegative
public opinion also plays a role at the individual level,
particularly in the adjustment and well-being of sexual
minority individuals, who are said to have to negotiate

Homonegativity in Southeast Asia 27
identity development processes in such social contexts
(Motoyama, 2015).
Global research into public opinion concerning
LGBT people point to ve factors that are associated
with homonegative attitudes: gender, age, education,
religion, and intergroup contact (Slootmaeckers
& Lievens, 2014). Generally, women have less
homonegative, more accepting attitudes than men
(Herek, 2002; Lim, 2002). Similar associations have
been found with younger individuals compared to older
generations, those with higher educational attainment
compared to those with less schooling, and people with
lower levels of religiosity versus those who are more
religious. Generally, young respondents, respondents
who are more educated, and those who view religion
as less central in their lives are also less homonegative
(Slootmaeckers & Lievens, 2014).
Apart from these demographic variables, attention
has been paid in the social attitudes literature
on intergroup contact as a predictor of lower
homonegativity. A large body of research has shown
that those who personally know many openly lesbian
and gay people, and especially those who interact
frequently with sexual minority individuals in contexts
that lead to uncertainty reduction and warm afliative
relations, have the least homonegative attitudes
(Detenber, Ho, Neo, Malik, & Cenite, 2013; Lewis,
2011; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). This effect has been
shown to be independent of the reverse (i.e., that
individuals who are LGBT-friendly at the onset will be
more likely to seek out interactions with LGBT people)
and can be the basis of interventions for prejudice
reduction.
Despite the important empirical and theoretical
work on homonegative social attitudes and its predictors
globally, many of the studies on homonegativity in the
Southeast Asian region have had notable limitations.
First, many rely on opportunistic samples such as
university students (e.g., Bernardo, 2013; Lim, 2002;
Ng et al., 2013; Ng, Yee, Subramaniam, Loh, & Madeira,
2015). It is unknown how well these non-representative
samples generalize to the general population. Second,
though some nationally representative, within-country
studies exist (e.g., Manalastas & del Pilar, 2005), none
have attempted to use public opinion measures that
allow for cross-country comparison within the region.
Thus, we have no systematic evidence for the range of
social attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and about
same-sex sexualities in Southeast Asia.
This research addresses these two limitations by
presenting a secondary analysis of national survey
data collected from six Southeast Asian countries
using comparable measures. We contribute to this
area of empirical research in the Asia Pacic region
by presenting a cross-country comparison of social
attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and about lesbian
and gay sexualities using nationally representative
data. Such an analysis provides a more comprehensive,
evidence-based snapshot of homonegativity, particularly
homonegative public opinion, across the region. The
research addresses the question—How do public
attitudes about lesbians, gay men, and their sexualities
compare across Southeast Asia? Specifically, how
homonegative are people in Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam? The
goals of this analysis are: (1) to describe and compare
homonegative public attitudes within the Southeast
Asian region using nationally representative data, and
(2) to explore correlates of those social attitudes within
each of the six countries.
Methods
Datasets
We analyzed the most recent available data from
the World Values Survey (WVS), a multi-national
interview-based survey that investigates people’s
beliefs and values concerning a wide range of social
issues, including same-sex sexualities. Based on
multistage cluster sampling of adults 18 years old and
above, nationally representative WVS data for six
Southeast Asian countries were used in this analysis:
Indonesia (N = 2,015), Malaysia (N = 1,300), the
Philippines (N = 1,200), Singapore (N = 1,972),
Thailand (N = 1,200), and Vietnam (N = 1,495), with
an aggregate total of N = 9,182 respondents. Combined,
the populations of these six countries represent 88%
of the total in ASEAN. Country-level datasets were
accessed via the WVS data portal (http://www.
worldvaluessurvey.org).

28 E.J. Manalastas, et al
Measures
Homonegativity. Attitudes toward lesbians, gay
men, and same-sex sexualities were assessed in the
WVS data using two questions. The rst was a social
exclusion item that asked respondents, “Which do
you not want to be your neighbor?”. “Homosexuals”
was presented in a list of nine social groups that also
included foreign workers, drug users, and people
of a different religion, among others. Nominating
homosexuals as unwanted neighbors was classied
as a homonegative response. The second measure
was a single-item moral acceptability question that
asked respondents, “Do you think being homosexual
can always be justified, cannot be justified, or in
between?”. Responses were assessed using a 10-point
scale with anchors of 1 = never justiable to 10 =
always justiable. Scores closer to 1 indicate more
homonegativity. As for all WVS surveys, items were
translated from English into local languages and back-
translated to ensure conceptual equivalence.
Predictors. We tested associations between
homonegative attitudes in the six Southeast Asian
countries against four of the ve correlates found in
the global literature on homonegativity (Slootmaeckers
& Lievens, 2014) that were measured in the WVS.
These were: (1) gender, (2) age, (3) education, and (4)
religiosity. Gender was a binary category of female/
male. Age was classied along ve categories (18 to
30 years old, 31 to 40, 41 to 50, 51 to 60, and 61 to
older). Education was measured as an ordinal variable
with three levels: having nished primary school or
below, having reached secondary or high school, and
university level attainment. Religion was measured as
a response to the question “How important is religion
in your life?”. Intergroup contact, the fth predictor
of homonegativity, is typically assessed by asking
respondents how many lesbian or gay friends they have
(Lewis, 2011), but it was not measured in the WVS.
Analysis
We conducted cross-tabulation analysis of the
six country data and cross-national comparison of
descriptives, including condence intervals set at 95%
when appropriate. We also ran country-level logistic
regression analyses on the social exclusion measure
to determine correlates of homonegative attitudes in
the different Southeast Asian countries in the dataset.
Results
Homonegativity: Attitudes toward Lesbians and
Gay Men as a Social Group
Comparison of the six countries on the social
exclusion measure indicated that the highest
homonegative attitudes were found in Indonesia,
where 66.1% of respondents, CI [.64, .68], did
not want lesbian and gay neighbors, followed by
Malaysia, where 58.7% of Malaysians, CI [.56, .61],
expressed similar homonegative opinions (see Figure
Figure 1. Percentage of respondents in six Southeast Asian countries
who reject lesbians and gay men as neighbors.

Homonegativity in Southeast Asia 29
1). In these two countries, levels of homonegativity
in the population were higher than 43.1%, which
was the unweighted aggregate level for the region,
CI [.42, .44]. In contrast, relatively lower levels of
homonegativity were found in three other countries:
39.8% in Thailand, CI [.37, .42]; 31.7% in Singapore,
CI [.30, .34]; and 29.1% in Vietnam, CI [.29, .31].
Homonegative social exclusion attitudes were lowest in
the Philippines, with 27.9% or a little over a quarter of
the population, CI [.25, .31], saying they did not want
lesbian and gay neighbors. Overall, the data indicate
widespread moderate to high levels of homonegativity
among people in the Southeast Asian region, where
on average, four out of 10 Southeast Asians reject
neighbors who are lesbian or gay.
Homonegativity: Attitudes Toward Same-Sex
Sexualities
In addition to views about lesbian and gay people
as a social group, public attitudes in Southeast Asia
toward same-sex sexualities in particular followed
roughly similar patterns (see Table 1). The most
extremely homonegative attitudes were found in
Indonesia, where same-sex sexualities were judged as
highly unacceptable (M = 1.35, SD = 1.30) and 87.6%
of Indonesians answered at the extreme homonegative
end of the scale, considering being gay or lesbian
as something that could never be morally justied.
Vietnamese (M = 1.86, SD = 1.67) and Malaysians
(M = 2.37, SD = 2.12) had similar homonegative
views, with 63.6% of people in Vietnam and 60.5%
in Malaysia indicating that being gay or lesbian as
never morally justiable. Again, the lowest levels of
homonegativity was found in the Philippines (M = 4.47,
SD = 3.21), where only 31.1% of Filipinos considered
lesbian or gay sexualities as never justiable, along
with Singaporeans (M = 3.51, SD = 2.33) and Thais
(M = 2.85, SD = 2.33). Mean ratings in these three
countries (the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand)
were above the unweighted overall mean in the region
(M = 2.74, SD = 1.14), indicating relatively lower
levels of homonegativity. Overall, the data again show
widespread moderate to high levels of homonegative
opinion among people in the Southeast Asian region,
where lesbian and gay sexualities are considered
never justiable by three to as much as eight out of 10
Southeast Asians, depending on the country context.
Exploring Predictors of Attitudes Toward Lesbians
and Gay Men in Southeast Asia
We explored associations between the four
predictors of homonegativity previously identied in
the literature and available in the WVS dataset (i.e.,
gender, age, education, and religiosity) with the social
exclusion measure that asked respondents if they
would accept or reject lesbian or gay neighbors (a
dichotomously scored item). Responses on this item,
which taps into public opinion on lesbians and gay
Table 1
Mean Ratings on Justiability of Same-Sex Sexualities in Six Southeast Asian countries
MSD 95% CI
Indonesia 1.35 1.30 1.29, 1.41
Malaysia 2.37 2.12 2.26, 2.49
Philippines 4.47 3.21 4.29, 4.65
Singapore 3.51 2.33 3.41, 3.61
Thailand 2.85 2.33 2.71, 2.98
Vietnam 1.86 1.67 1.77, 1.95
Region 2.74 1.14 2.71, 2.76

30 E.J. Manalastas, et al
men as a social group in society, were entered into six
exploratory, country-level logistic regression analyses.
Overall patterns were mixed, and in some instances,
the reverse direction was found, contrary to predictions.
Gender was a signicant predictor of homonegativity
in three out of the six countries. As predicted,
women compared to men were less homonegative,
in the Philippines, OR = 1.60, 95% CI [1.23, 2.07],
p < .001. Contrary to what was expected from the
literature, however, women in some areas more than
men appeared to be more rejecting of lesbian and gay
neighbors; this pattern was found in Malaysia, OR =
0.73, 95% CI [0.59, 0.92], p < .01, and in Vietnam,
OR = 0.75, 95% CI [0.60, 0.94], p < .01. Signicant
gender differences in homonegativity were not found
in Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Age appeared
to be a more consistent predictor of homonegativity
in Southeast Asia; in ve out of the six countries,
older respondents were more rejecting of lesbian and
gay neighbors. We found this age effect in Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand (all
OR’s >1.60, all p’s < .05). In Vietnam, no signicant
age differences were found. Education effects were also
mixed. Higher education was associated with lower
homonegativity, as predicted, in the Philippines (OR
= 0.72, 95% CI [0.53, 0.98], p < .05) and in Thailand
(OR = 0.58, 95% CI [0.42, 0.79], p < .001). However
the reverse was found in the two most homonegative
countries: in Indonesia (OR = 1.35, 95% CI [1.03,
1.79], p < .05) and in Malaysia (OR = 1.39, 95% CI
[1.01, 1.93], p < .05), where respondents, particularly
those with secondary education were more rejecting
of lesbian and gay neighbors than those with only
primary education. Finally, religiosity as measured by
endorsement of the importance of religion in life, was
strongly associated with homonegativity in Malaysia
(OR = 2.24, 95% CI [1.17, 4.29], p < .01) and in
Thailand (OR = 3.45, 95% CI [2.11, 5.64], p < .01). In
those two countries but not in the others, respondents
who place more value in religion were more likely to
reject neighbors who are lesbian or gay.
Discussion
Homonegativity persists in many parts of the
world (Carroll, 2016). The Southeast Asian region is
no exception. Nationally representative survey data
from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, and Vietnam point to widespread moderate
to high levels of homonegativity among people in
the Southeast Asian region, where on average, four
out of 10 Southeast Asians reject neighbors who
are lesbian or gay. The most homonegative attitudes
were found in Indonesia and Malaysia, compared
to relatively less rejecting nations like Thailand,
Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Exploration
of associations suggested that traditional predictors of
homonegativity such as older age and higher religiosity
do operate in some Southeast Asian countries, while
other factors like female gender and higher education
less robustly so (and in some instances, even reversed).
Despite increasing LGBT visibility globally, survey
evidence suggests that homonegative attitudes persist
in Southeast Asia.
Public opinion is formed and expressed within
larger societal contexts, and as a region, the social
climate for lesbians and gay men in Southeast Asia
also varies (UNDP, 2015; UNESCO, 2015). This
variance is seen in laws and state action, for example,
criminalization in states with a history of British
colonial rule, such as Singapore and Malaysia (but
not in the Philippines or Thailand; Sanders, 2009),
and anticipatory anti-LGBT mobilization in Malaysia
(Bosia & Weiss, 2013; Weiss, 2013). Religious
condemnation, for instance, the institutionalized
moral exclusion of same-sex sexualities in Islam (in
Indonesia) and Roman Catholicism (in the Philippines),
but less so within Buddhism (in Vietnam or Thailand),
is another example (Adamczyk & Pitt, 2009; UNDP
& USAID, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c). Cultural exclusion
(e.g., traditional beliefs that being gay or lesbian is
incompatible with valued practices like marriage,
parenting, and family life, such as in Vietnam; Feng
et al., 2012) is yet another. Our ndings indicate
that apart from these structural and contextual levels
of analysis of homonegative social stigma, there is
also considerable variance in country-level public
opinion towards lesbians and gay men in six countries
of Southeast Asia — consistently higher levels of
homonegativity in Indonesia and Malaysia, ambivalent
attitudes in Vietnam, and relatively less rejecting views
in Singapore, Thailand, and especially the Philippines.

Homonegativity in Southeast Asia 31
The ndings appear to provide some evidence for the
popular notion that the Philippines and Thailand are
indeed some of the most “gay-friendly” countries in
Southeast Asia, while Indonesia and Malaysia much
less so. Though the data do not allow for direct tests
at the aggregate level due to the small number of
countries in this Southeast Asian sample (n = 6), we
speculate that the inter-country differences in public
opinion may be partly associated with differences in
dominant religion (e.g., Islam versus the others) as
argued by European researchers of homonegativity
(e.g., Jäckle & Wenzelburger, 2015; van den Akker,
van der Ploeg, & Scheepers, 2013), as well as in the
varying degrees of visibility of LGBT life and culture
in a country, including popular positive representations
in media, which represent an indirect form of contact
with minority groups such as lesbians and gay men
(Schiappa, Gregg, & Hewes, 2005).
As in all secondary analyses of preexisting
data, some caveats merit mention. First, though we
analyzed nationally representative data from Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and
Vietnam, there are other countries in Southeast Asia
like Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, Myanmar, as well as East
Timor, for which the WVS provides no comparable
information. Broadening the analysis will provide
a fuller snapshot of homonegativity in the region,
especially considering that same-sex relations may
be highly proscribed in countries like Brunei (where
gay sexuality is criminalized) and East Timor (with
its majority Roman Catholic population) but less
so in Laos and Cambodia (with their increasingly
visible LGBT populations). Second, measurement of
homonegativity was limited to single-item measures.
These do not permit disaggregation of social attitudes
toward lesbians versus toward gay men; likewise, other
dimensions of homonegative public opinion, such as
pathologization beliefs, support for criminalization,
or rejection of same-sex unions remain untapped by
the WVS measures (Andersen & Fetner, 2008; Lottes
& Grollman, 2010). Finally, other predictors that
have been found in the literature, most importantly,
intergroup contact, are not measured in the WVS.
Given the mixed pattern of associations we found
between traditional predictors to homonegativity at
the individual level across the six countries, it is likely
that other factors are at work and need to be studied
further. Future research would do well to include these
other variables.
Despite these caveats, we believe that empirical
assessment and comparison of public opinion across
the Southeast Asian region can provide a barometer of
how far we have gone — or need to go — in advancing
social acceptance of sexual minorities in this part of the
world (Laurent, 2005; van den Akker et al., 2013). This
empirical analysis, based on nationally representative
data from six Southeast Asian countries, is a small
contribution to this line of social science inquiry.
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