“Tomboys” and “Baklas”: Experiences of Lesbian and Gay Filipino Americans Kevin L. Nadal City University of New York Melissa J. H. Corpus Columbia University In the Philippines, the terms “tomboy” and “bakla” describe lesbian women and gay men, and are often used synonymously to label transgender people. Although there is some literature that describes the experiences of gay men in the Philippines, there is a dearth of psychological research that examines experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Filipino Americans in the U.S. The current exploratory study utilized focus groups (N = 24) with lesbian and gay Filipino Americans on both the East and West coasts of the United States. Five domains emerged: (1) Religious influence on sexual and gender identity, (2) Family influence on gender and sexual identity, (3) Experiences with race, (4) Process of negotiating multiple identities, and (5) Variant experiences between Filipino subgroups. Findings indicate that religion, culture, and family expectations influenced one’s ability to accept one’s sexuality and that lesbian and gay Filipino Americans experience several psychological stressors as a result of balancing their multiple identities. Participants described the types of racism they experience in the LGBT community, as well as the heterosexism they face in their families and in their ethnic communities. Implications for Asian American psychology and clinical practice are discussed. Keywords: Filipino Americans, lesbians, gay men, intersectional identities, sexual identity The nature of identifying as LGBT and as a person of color can present several intricacies. Although both groups (e.g., people of color and LGBT people) experience historical and present-day marginalization (e.g., stereotyping, oppression, stigmatization, and microaggressions) by their respective dominant groups, marrying the two identities can compel individuals to choose one identity over the other. Moreover, many communities of color have been overtly intolerant of LGBT persons, influencing LGBT people of color to seek membership in a general LGBT community rather than within their own racial or ethnic group. Some LGBT persons of color may want to identify as both their racial/ethnic and sexual identities, but struggle as they feel negative repercussions from both of their groups (Chung & Singh, 2009; Chung & Szymanski, 2006). Consequently, LGBT people of color may experience an array of psychological stressors including identity confusion, self- esteem issues, emotional trauma, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse problems (see Nadal, 2010 for a review). Although it is clear that LGBT persons of color are presented with unique experiences, a limited amount of research focusing on this population exists. Specifically, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) receive the least amount of attention in the realm of LGBT-focused research (Chan, 1989; Nadal, 2010). Meanwhile, research on AAPIs often center specifically on East Asian Americans (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) or lump Asians as a homogenous group, leaving certain subgroups (e.g., Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders) to be overlooked in the liter- ature (Nadal, 2004, 2011). This trend is prevalent with major studies on LGBT Asian Americans, in which majority of the samples were East Asian Americans (see Chan, 1989; Kimmel & Yi, 2004), results were assumed to apply to all Asian Americans, or both. Thus, the purpose of this article is to disaggregate the research on LGBT AAPIs, by highlighting the experiences of one under-researched group—LGBT Filipino Americans. Experiences of Filipino Americans Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American group in the U.S. and the second largest immigrant group in the country (Nadal, 2011). Having a unique colonial history and cultural value system, Filipinos and Filipino Americans are one of the only ethnic groups that have been placed into several racial and ethnic categories (Nadal, 2004, 2011). For example, the U.S. Census, 2000 classifies Filipino Americans as Asian American (Barnes & Bennett, 2002), although the U.S. Department of Edu- cation has previously categorized them as Pacific Islanders (Horn, 1995) or even as Hispanic (Trevino, 1987). Moreover, the Cali- fornia Senate Bill 1813, which was passed in 1988, requires California state personnel surveys or statistical tabulations to clas- sify persons of Filipino ancestry as Filipino instead of Asian, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic (Espiritu, 1992). Given this history, This article was published Online First October 1, 2012. Kevin L. Nadal, Psychology Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York; Melissa J. H. Corpus, Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia Univer- sity. We send our special acknowledgements to Dr. David P. Rivera and Marc Johnston for their assistance in this project. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kevin L. Nadal, PhD, Psychology Department, John Jay College of Criminal Jus- tice—City University of New York, 524 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019. E-mail: knadal@jjay.cuny.edu This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Asian American Journal of Psychology © 2012 American Psychological Association 2013, Vol. 4, No. 3, 166 –175 1948-1985/13/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0030168 166