The main purpose of descriptive-hermeneutics study was to analyze the major queer characters of the Ladlad anthology. The research also sought to describe the character traits of the personae in the story, the social constructs discerned and the challenges met by the characters as well as their coping mechanisms through the queer theory under Butler’s gender performativity, Austin’s criteria of utterance performance and Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. The researcher analyzed six characters from the selected six short stories. The results indicated that majority of the characters performed feminine role. Also, majority of the characters had a ‘controlled behavior’ as a result of the embedded social norms in the setting where the stories happened. In terms of the relationship of the character towards society, majority portrayed a strong ego using freedom and will. In terms of social constructs affecting the characters, majority assumed the feminine role in the relationship. Moreover, majority of the characters faced psychological problems and emotional problems. However, characters variantly experienced spiritual and social challenges. As to their coping mechanisms, the characters concealed their identity, practice of unconditional acceptance, proper communication and made ways to be opened with their gender preference. This study may be beneficial to the different educational ministries in literature, the gay community and future researchers in quest of recent gender study materials.
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