Love Out Loud: Gugmang Tiunay and Same-Sex Couple Communication

This study seeks to understand the communication challenges and coping mechanisms of same-sex couples in expressing and sustaining gugmang tiunay (true love) within multilingual relationships in the Philippines. Guided by the foundations of Affection Exchange Theory, Communication Accommodation Theory, and Queer Theory, the research explored how language, tone, emotional expression, and communication styles influence intimacy and understanding among same-sex partners. Through a qualitative approach, data were collected using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with couples in long-term relationships. The data gathered revealed that communication barriers commonly stem from lexical gaps, misunderstandings arising from code-switching, tone-sensitive meanings, emotional withdrawal, intercultural differences, and language-related emotional escalation. These challenges often caused confusion, conflict, and emotional distance between partners. However, participants actively employed coping mechanisms such as multilingual flexibility, clarification strategies, emotional regulation, reassurance, humor, face-to-face communication, and perspective-taking to maintain harmony and understanding in their relationships. This research contributes to sociolinguistic and queer communication studies by demonstrating the significant role of language in sustaining bonds and relationship stability among same-sex couples in the Philippine context

same-sex couples, language barriers, communication challenges, code-switching, coping mechanisms

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