LAGABLAB's open letter to Isagani Cruz

We, members of the Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network Philippines (LAGABLAB-Pilipinas), wishes to thank Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Isagani Cruz for giving us yet another proof that homophobia still exists in our society today. His column ("Don we now our gay apparel, August 12, 2006, Page A10) tells us that, indeed, a law penalizing discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs) should be urgently enacted by Congress.

His stark hatred against homosexuals represents a common belief system that continues to deepen the prejudice that the LGBT community encounters. Mr. Isagani Cruz fails to see that such display of bigotry is easily translated into acts that concretely violate human rights and fundamental freedoms, values whose universality and primacy a former Supreme Court justice should have been able to grasp and uphold. After all, the Supreme Court as an institution has a long tradition of defending civil liberties and human rights. It is therefore ironic that one of its former justices finds it easy to dehumanize us, target us for exclusion, and deny us the right to celebrate our diversity and dignity.

He claims that his scathing homophobia is only reserved to homosexuals who do not conduct themselves decorously. However, his sense of propriety, going by his narrow-minded perspective, means conforming to the destructive boundaries and restrictive stereotypes that our conservative society has established for LGBTs. It means tolerating biased labor policies and practices that act like a glass ceiling that blocks our productivity, or enduring verbal and physical abuses from our own family members or from our immediate community. Mr. Cruz wants us to believe that the fate of homosexuals who openly claim their space in our society as equal members of the human family is a lifetime of humiliation and discrimination. Unless we conform to the whims of people like Mr. Cruz, we should willingly accept that fate. To him, only when we are invisible or servile to what he claims to be the "privileged sex" can we expect acceptance from our society.

Mr. Cruz should understand that human dignity has no sexual orientation or gender identity. Homosexuality is hardly a dilution of the male and female sexes, and femininity and womanhood, upon which equal scorn and prejudice have been heaped by Mr. Cruz, are not synonymous to weakness. The 'third sex' that he ridicules does not exist at all, since we are all equal in dignity and respect, as affirmed by our Constitution, our laws, and the international agreements on equality and human rights that the Philippines signed.

The Filipino LGBT community will continue to march – in sagalas and during the annual Pride parade – because we do not take bigotry sitting down. The likes of Mr. Cruz can't – and we will not let them – push the Filipino LGBT community back to invisibility.

Rough and ready: our ADB position paper

Last 9 August, LAGABLAB went to the Senate and participated in the first hearing for the anti-discrimination bill. To support the passage of the bill, our organization sent a position paper. Friend Ferdie (who is also an officer of the organization) and I were in Angeles City then for a planning workshop organized by the Philippine National AIDS Council. We drafted the position paper, sent it to the other officers for their comments. Luckily, Joel (another officer) was free that day, and he attended the hearing representing TLF. I learned later that ours was the first paper read during the hearing.

Actually, I panicked belatedly upon learning that no major commentary or editing was made, the paper was read as is. I reminded them that I sent them a draft, I should have emphasized that it was a VERY ROUGH DRAFT. The night that we wrote the paper, it was after the workshop's socials, I wasn't sure if my head was still attuned to make some serious writing. Ferdie actually made the first attempt; he "scribbled" a few sentences/paragraphs then later told me to fill in some more. He fell asleep as I wrote. I was actually just listening and singing as I wrote, the New Wave Top 100 was playing on my laptop then.

The Board met tonight at my place. I implored them to let me review the paper again before we distribute it to other people. I learned from Jonas (who is both Board member and LAGABLAB officer) that he will be compiling all the position papers to become part of the report of the Senate Committee who held the hearing. Anyway, below is the revised version, comments most welcome.

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The Anti-Discrimination Bill – Senate Bill number 1738, in particular – reduces homophobia. It's passage and eventual enactment will reduce acts of discrimination and social exclusion exacted among Filipinos who are lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT's). This legislation shall be a very valuable contribution in enabling a healthy, just and humane society for ALL Filipinos. It shall aid in transforming our society from the social violence of discrimination to one that fully recognizes, respects and upholds human dignity regardless of perceived or actual sexual orientation and gender identities among its citizens.

We are members of TLF Sexuality, Health and Rights Educators Collective, an organization of gay men who are community educators, trainers and advocates working for the promotion of human rights among LGBT's as well as work with men who have sex with men (MSM) for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV or the virus that causes AIDS. We are a civil society member of the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC), the multi-sector body empowered by Republic Act 8504 to oversee the integrated and comprehensive country response to HIV/AIDS. We represent MSM communities, considered as one of the most-at-risk populations for HIV/AIDS.

In our work, we facilitate development of behavior and support systems that enable individuals and communities to protect them selves from harm, to prevent them selves from becoming vulnerable to health risks. When homophobia is minimized, gay men, bisexuals and other MSM are less likely to hide or deny their gender identities. When society enables them to safely come out from its proverbial shadows, health promotion efforts like those from our organization (and even from the government's own programs) become more accessible, their social and economic needs better met, their potentials to contribute to community and national development maximized.

Currently, this is not the scenario. Delivering health promotion programs for gay men, bisexuals and other MSM remain to be one of the most daunting. Learning to prevent consequences of risky sexual activity and enabling them to seek for appropriate health information and services fall below targets set by the Department of Health and PNAC. Unprotected male-to-male sexual behavior accounts for over 20 percent of HIV infections, or based on the most recent update on the country's HIV/AIDS Registry, that would be almost 600 cases. New cases have been increasing annually, and more worryingly, it is now at its fastest rate in 10 years.

Reduced homophobia helps in addressing a variety of issues, the HIV/AIDS epidemic included. Together with other United Nations member-states, the Philippines has committed that by year 2010 we have moved towards achieving universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support for people at risk for, already infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. In the last UN special session reviewing gains toward this commitment, many HIV prevention efforts, including the Philippines' own, have failed to sufficiently reach gay men, bisexuals, transgenders and other MSM. Upon renewal of commitments, the chief of the UN agency on AIDS have once again advocated resolving homophobia as this being one of the "fundamental drivers" of the worldwide pandemic. He recognized that reducing homosexual stigma and preventing discrimination among LGBT persons will help curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The country's HIV/AIDS epidemic, currently almost 3,000 confirmed cases, representing what could already be up to 20,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, is now classified as hidden and growing. Arresting homophobia as a fundamental driver of the epidemic will be of great significance in finally controlling and reversing this ravaging trend. And more importantly, we believe, resolving stigma and discrimination will give redress for those who have suffered and those who are presently suffering, and enable seeking for redress among those who will suffer in the future. A law preventing discrimination among LGBT persons will do these. We look forward to the day that no Filipino citizen shall be unjustly and inhumanely restricted from full participation in society on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, all under the protective and empowering law of the land.

9 August 2006, Makati City, Philippines
(Revised 11 August 2006)