Abstract
In a world where heterosexism dominates, homosexuality is perceived as sinful and inappropriate. Nonetheless, the media, through its proper and positive portrayal of gay men’s lives in Boys’ Love (BL) Series, has contributed in alleviating such prejudicial attitudes toward sexual minorities among its homophobic audience. Thus, this qualitative research study utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) aimed to relive the stories of self-confessed homophobic heterosexual young adult males who were exposed to at least two (2) positively-represented, non-restricted Thai BL series. Accordingly, ten self-confessed homophobic young adults who engaged in explicit and/or implicit homophobic behaviors in the past, and are at present high-grade nonhomophobic were purposively selected to individually take part in a semi structured in-depth interview. Subsequently, member checking was employed to validate the credibility of participants' responses, and truthful critique and support were obtained through critical friend technique. Findings of the study revealed that BL series’ positive portrayal of gay men and homosexuality, and its lesson-filled stories provided awareness about gay men’s realities which led to the shift in homophobic young adult’s beliefs.
