Navigating LGBTIQ+ Identities in Adolescence: Dialogical Tensions of the Self as Embedded in Familial, Cultural, and Societal Contexts

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed, queer, plus (LGBTIQ+) adolescents navigate multilayered and embedded contexts of family, culture, and society. Across cisheteronormative contexts that privilege cisgender and heterosexual identities, LGBTIQ+ adolescents navigate acceptance within their families, cultures, and societies that may reject, tolerate, or accept their identities. Using Dialogical Self Theory, we further understand the journey of LGBTIQ+ adolescents as an internal dialogue between the voices of the authentic self and the spectrum of external voices internalized as parts of the self. The role of family in this process of coming to terms with one’s LGBTIQ+ identity becomes central – as family acceptance, rejection, or tolerance shapes the process of accepting the self. This developmental process is further embedded in local, global, and glocalized contexts that uniquely construct gender and sexuality alongside digital spaces that can offer alternative agentic and empowering queer representations. Using the Philippine case as exemplar, we illustrate how LGBTIQ+ adolescents navigate unique gendered and classed constructions of bakla and tomboy as embedded in strong Catholic conservative values alongside lack of legal protection for LGBTIQ+ identities.