Gay Men and Male-to-Female Transgender Persons in Chile: An Exploratory Quantitative Study on Stigma, Discrimination, Victimization, Happiness and Social Well-Being

Abstract

Little is known about the characteristics of lesbian, gay men, bisexual and transgender individuals in Chile and the impact of stigma and discrimination on their happiness and social well-being. Against this background this study has three aims: to describe the sociodemographic profile of Chilean gay men and male-to-female (MtF) transgender population; to describe the levels of stigma and discrimination using the Subjective Scale of Stigma and Discrimination (SISD); and to describe the relationships among the SISD, other measures of discrimination and victimization, and measures of happiness and social well-being. Two types of sampling were designed. For gay men, a type of respondent-driven sampling (RDS) was used. In the case of the MtF transgender sample, snowball sampling was used. The final sample consists of 437 participants who are gay men (N = 325) and MtF transgender individuals (N = 112), with ages ranging from 18 to 64 years (M = 30.82, SD = 9.81) for gay men and from 18 to 75 years (M = 36.22, SD = 10.37) for MtF transgender individuals. The sociodemographic profile of the sample shows differential patterns revealing that MtF transgender individuals are in a more unfavorable position. There is a statistically significant difference in SISD scores between the gay men and MtF transgender individuals [t (435) = −2.48; p < 0.05; d = 0.26]. Furthermore, there are statistically significant differences in three SISD dimensions. These findings are important because they could orient the design of specific policies for each group.