A Grounded Theory on Filipino Parents' Acceptance of Their Trans Women Children

This grounded theory investigated acceptance from the experiences of 28 Filipino parents whose children are self-identified trans women. Parent participants were recruited via snowball and purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and reflective journals. Parents believe that trans women are God's creation who manifest the thoughts, feelings, and actions of a woman and who are good natured and self-driven, genetically determined with unchangeable quality, visible in the community and need protection. Parents view themselves as stewards of the God-given gift with the role of protecting the safety and future of their trans women children despite having feelings of certainty and uncertainty. A strengths-based and child-centered process towards supportive environment for trans women's gender identity was developed describing distinct processes in the pre-acceptance, acceptance, and post-acceptance phases. Parents have offered some alternative ways that strengthened their adaptation to effectively co-exist and maintain a healthy relationship with their trans women children.