Abstract:
The transgender community of Pakistan has been the victim to discrimination, harassment,
and violence. Despite continuing efforts to voice their concerns, active members of their
movement have been publicly ridiculed and physically attacked (Tribune, 2018). Clinging to
the edge of their lives, some transgenders have received derogatory treatment at hospitals,
resulting in their death (Dawn, 2016). With respect to their ongoing mistreatment in society
and the incidents that have led to loss of not only quality of life but also life itself, the
research aimed to explore the attitude of healthcare providers towards members of
transgender community. Attitude as conceptualized in previous researches, consists of
beliefs, emotions and behaviors about and towards a target object (Breckler, 1984; Eagly &
Chaiken, 1993). Employing a qualitative methodology, a total of 18 participants were
purposely approached for interview, belonging to different healthcare settings in Lahore. An
interview guide was developed on the basis of the conceptualizations of Breckler (1984) and
Hill and Willoughby (2005). Thematic Model of analysis was used to interpret the data using
the guidelines of Miles and Huberman (1994). As the method was both inductive and
deductive, a total of eight preset codes and nine emergent codes were discovered and
reviewed by independent coders to check inter-rater reliability. It was found that the
healthcare professionals generally had tolerant and positive attitude towards transgenders,
while few harbored hostilities towards them. Our findings also highlighted that positive
beliefs and cognitions were not consistent with behavior due to the influence of social norms.
Culture seemed to play a vital role in determining the attitude of the individuals and gave
insight of how it reinforces stigma associated with a particular population.
