Perception of Youth on Social Acceptance of Lgbtiq Community : An Anthropological Study of Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

The emergence of the LGBTIQ community has been a topic of discussion and contention for years due to the community’s ideology against the cultural, religious, and moral values of Pakistan. The acceptability of third gender as well as other diverse gender identities has been objectionable therefore, this study’s primary interest is to discern and scrutinize how the LGBTIQ community is perceived, overtly discussed, and covertly categorized by individuals in Religious and Culturallysensitive countries like Pakistan.Moreover, this study explored the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of respondents affecting their viewpoint regarding the social inclusion of this community in Pakistan. A sample of 20 participants consisting of educated individuals aged between 20 to 27 years old from two different universitiesin Islamabad was obtained through the Consecutive sampling technique.In-depth interviews were utilized to examine the in-depth knowledge, and deeper understanding of individuals and recorded responses wereanalyzed through a thematic analysis technique using Intersectionality theory as a major guideline. The findings of the study disclosed that the acceptability and unacceptability of the LGBTIQ community is controversial in its nature since the ideology of this community is violating the moralities of the Pakistani society therefore, respondents shared intolerable responses towards this community.Islam clearly mentions in Holy Quran that homosexuality, prostitution, nudity, and other diverse sexual orientations are forbidden and any person committing such crime must be liable to harsh punishment. Likewise, culture opposes having feelings for other genders, in this regard, the concept of Cultural Relativism emphasizes that Western societies have been welcoming the LGBTIQ community which empowers themas compared to Pakistan. Moreover, the introduction of the Transgender bill in 2018 highlighted the issue of misinterpretation of terminology transgender and intersex which was also observed during data collection. It also underlined the argumentfor criminalization and decriminalization of the LGBTIQ community. Meanwhile,Social media and the Aurat March played significant roles in providing inclusion, liberty, and freedom of speech in contrast, mainstream media restricts the content that violates religious or cultural values as the movie Joyland was criticized by the masses as the movie featured a married man falling in love with a transgender women. The escalation of HIV was associated with non-heterosexual contact, which is a taboo in Pakistan, moreover, people associated the identity crises of this community with mental health issues.This study encompassed a detailed examination of young respondents embracing both inclusion and exclusion of the LGBTIQ community and at the same time,highlighted the challenges that occurred with the advent of this community.