News about lgbtq philippines
What’s the context?
The Philippines lacks a national LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination statute, but local laws and guidebooks extend some protection.
MANILA - Despite being seen as one of Asia's most Gay friendly countries, the Philippines does not have a national law that could address the discrimination and legal challenges queer Filipinos face.
Religious groups and conservative lawmakers have for years fiercely opposed attempts to overtake a law that would provide impartial and equal access to basic social services, opportunities, healthcare, protection and justice to the Diverse community.
According to lawyers from the SyCip Salazar Hernandez and Gatmaitan, a local firm providing pro-bono legal services, the lack of such protections makes Gay Filipinos vulnerable to harassment, surveillance and prosecution, including red tagging, a strategy used by the state to label individuals or organisations as communists.
But a new legal guidebook developed by the law firm, other NGOs, and the Thomson Reuters Foundation's Trust Law team, aims to spread awareness on the range of legal remedies available.
In the absence of a national law to protect LGBTQ+ Filipinos, what can be done to safeguard
LGBTI rights in the Philippines are in limbo
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Lloyd Nicholas Vergara
Supreme Court of the Philippines, Manila
lloydndv@gmail.com
The definitive case law in the Philippines on LGBTI issues is Ang Ladlad LGBT Party (Ladlad) v Commission of Elections (COMELEC).* Ladlad,[1] an organisation composed of men and women who identify themselves as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, or trans-gendered individuals (LGBTs), applied with the COMELEC to be registered as a party-list organisation in 2006. Its application was denied on the ground of lack of substantial membership establish. In 2009, Ladlad applied again, yet this period, the COMELEC refused registration on moral grounds. COMELEC reasoned in part that ‘as a society, the Philippines cannot ignore its more than 500 years of Muslim and Christian upbringing, such that some moral precepts espoused by said religions have [seeped] into society and these are not publicly approved moral norms’.
The Supreme Court (SC), in reversing the COMELEC verdict, reasoned: ‘Our Constitution provides “[n]o law shall be made respecting an establishment
Philippines’ Right to Protect Act could propel Diverse rights
Cendaña said that while the proposed commandment will not enact marriage equality, it “recognises that the relationships of LGBTQ+ people are valid.”
Cendaña helped draft the Philippines’ first bill against discrimination of Queer Filipinos in 2000. Subsequent attempts to legislate such protections over the last two decades have also failed.
A current version, the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression (SOGIE) Equality Bill, aims to provide equitable and equal access to basic social services, opportunities, healthcare, protection and justice.
However, the SOGIE bill has stalled amid fierce disagreement from religious groups and some lawmakers.
“For 25 years, we’ve been depriving LGBTQ people of their basic fundamental rights,” Cendaña told Context.
“I hope that, unlike the SOGIE Equality Bill, something as basic as right to care will not be met with too much opposition, because it is inhumane to deprive couples of the right to take take care of of each other,” said Cendaña.
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Giving queer couples the right to decide for their partners’ medical emergencies may be
Pope told off by trainee for using anti-LGBTQ language
The forum, which was air live on social media on Thursday, had the theme "Building Bridges" in a region of diverse religions and ethnicities. It brought together Catholic university students from across alternative countries.
The student from the Ateneo de Manila University told the Pope that he has been "outcasted and bullied due to my bisexuality, my gayness, my identity and being the son of a single parent".
He then called on him to: “Stop using offensive language against the LGBTQIA+ community."
Mr Rivera, who wore a rainbow-coloured sash over his traditional Filipino garment, also asked the Pope to "allow divorce in the Philippines".
Aside from the Vatican, the Philippines is the only country in the world where divorce is illegal. This is due to a strong lobby against it by the Roman Catholic Church.
The Pope waited for all three students in Mr Rivera's group to speak before giving his replies.
He did not address Mr Rivera's concerns specifically but he said through a translator that he was advising Mr Rivera to differentiate true love from misleading love.
"Alwa
- USAID withdrawal affects Queer advocacy groups
- HIV services heavily reliant on foreign funding
- Groups speak local institutions could help them survive
MANILA - LoveYourself, a Philippines-based group providing free HIV testing and treatment services, was receiving aid from the Together States like innumerable groups promoting health and LGBTQ+ rights around the world.
But unlike so many of those organizations that were forced to close clinics when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day chill on all foreign assistance on January 20, LoveYourself kept 40 of its staff members affected by the solidify, and its doors stayed open.
The group’s founder, Dr. Ronivin Pagtakhan, credited its self-sustaining model and government partnerships.
“We were preparing for these kinds of circumstances,” Pagtakhan told Context/the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “All the basic programmes that we have are still for free.”
With the resilience of LoveYourself as a model, similar groups in the archipelago nation are looking at new financing strategies and sources of funding.
They are calling for greater involvement by local health institutions to protect advocacy