ISSN: 2578-5001
Authors: Naiya Patel* and Neel Patel
Aim: To observe, describe and determine the attitude and attractiveness/likeability as a romantic partner/friend of heterosexual men attending one U.S. institution towards transgender women. To describe how do they categorize themselves. Methods: It is a non-experimental qualitative research study. Participants were selected based on both convenience and homogenous snowball sampling. A total of two (2) focus groups consisting of 10 heterosexual males between the ages of 21-29 volunteered for the study. Conducting a focus group was used as our primary data collection method for the study. Each participant was interviewed and engaged in an organized group discussion that was monitored and recorded by the male moderator who was certified to conduct human subject researches through the National Institute of Health (NIH). ATLAS.ti. 8 and SPSS version 25 were used for data analysis. The study is institutional approved. Results: Heterosexual male tend to have a more negative attitude towards Male to Female transgender as compared to Female to male. Homophobia exist amongst heterosexual male and is the major reason they avoid any relationship or association with a transgender woman. Conclusion: The study is aimed to increase the knowledge of transgender women especially in a college/institutional setting. Ultimately, being transgender does not take away from the fact that they are living and breathing humans. Our overall impact for this research is to bring about awareness of the perceptions of heterosexual men towards transgender individuals to promote future research that would break down the barriers of prejudice towards transgender and broaden our overall knowledge of their lifestyle.
Keywords: Transgender Woman; Heterosexual Men; Transphobia; Public Health
