Resisting Heteronormativity and Homophobic Bullying: LGBTQIA+ Students in the Philippines

This Palgrave Pivot examines how LGBTQIA+ students navigate, resist, and transform the heteronormative structures of Philippine society. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sixteen LGBTQIA+ students from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), and scholarly literature, the book illuminates the lived realities of gender socialization, gender fluidity, discrimination, and social resilience under conditions shaped by Catholic doctrine, family norms, and school environments. Using an eclectic sociological framework that integrates theories of gender fluidity, social resistance, resilience, and solidarity, the authors reveal how students counter family, school, church, and community-based homophobic bullying while cultivating protective networks of support. The book further examines how institutional ethos and student advocacy foster an inclusive and solidarity-driven academic environment, positioning the university as a gender-affirming space in a predominantly conservative national context. Providing an empirically rich account of LGBTQIA+ exclusion and collective agency in the Global South, this volume advances current debates in gender studies, sociology of education, queer studies, and Philippine studies. It will interest scholars, students, university administrators, and policymakers seeking to understand the dynamics of heteronormativity, LGBTQIA+ resistance, and the social conditions that enable inclusive educational spaces.