‘EQUAL RIGHTS, NOT PRIVILEGES’: Iloilo City’s LGBT+ office pushes for inclusivity

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

Almost a year after its establishment on July 1, 2019, the Iloilo City Office of LGBT Affairs said the fight for equal rights in the city has still a long way to go.

Established by Mayor Jerry Treñas after returning to the City Hall in 2019, the office was created to create a member database of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender plus (LGBT+) sector and to formulate contextualized projects and provide a platform for the needs of the LGBT+ community to be heard.

The office’s chief, Gabriel Felix Umadhay, said that within a year, the office was able to push for a Gender Code, which is already in its second reading with the Iloilo City Council.

The city also passed an Anti-Discrimination Ordinance which has been in effect since 2018.

“We have come up with a new Gender Code, which previously only recognized males and females. The new Gender Code includes persons of diverse SOGIE (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression). It means to say that in our Gender Code, we’re looking at having our Health Centers to be able to receive abuse cases of LGBT+ persons. It’s currently on second reading with our local legislative council. Hopefully, when it gets approved, we will have better projects to be implemented,” Umadhay said.

Umadhay also said that despite the existence of the Anti-Discrimination Ordinance, there are still persons of diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) in the city who are still experiencing discrimination.

“Now that we have an Anti-Discrimination Ordinance, we don’t stop there. We need to make sure that we keep moving forward. We always remind our community that we’re not asking for privileges. We’re asking for equal rights. The rights being given to cisgender persons should also be applicable to persons of diverse SOGIE. That is what we’re fighting for,” he added.

Umadhay cited several examples that were brought to his attention, such as discrimination in schools, public health services, and employment.

“The main focus of the office is to make sure is that rights are being acknowledged. There are rights that are deprived of us. For example, schools are still stereotyping against trans children, lesbians and gays are also being discriminated in schools, medical services for persons of diverse SOGIE are still unavailable. There is also job discrimination like men with long hair and women with short hair aren’t employed. We still have to make sure that there are safe spaces where people of diverse SOGIE are acknowledged, and their life principles aren’t stepped on,” he said.

The office also brought attention to internalized discrimination within the LGBT+ community.

“The biggest challenge always is discrimination within the LGBT+ community. Trans people, gay people, bisexual people, they won’t back down. Within the community itself, there is discrimination on who is at the top of the food chain among persons of diverse SOGIE. Of course, there are also the values which contradict each other,” he said.

Umadhay explained that these were all part of the group dynamics of organizations, saying that the LGBT+ community is still moving forward despite these conflicts.

“When we form an organization, we undergo the group dynamics theory. The second stage of that group dynamics theory is storming, where we discover the attitudes of the members as well as contradicting ideas. When we have online discussions, there is storming, but that’s okay, we acknowledge that because it’s part of group dynamics. When there is storming, we agree on new norms, and we can set forward. At least, when people see the exchanges, they’re a bit messy, but we are moving forward towards betterment,” he said.

Greater involvement by the public sector in the development of inclusive policies is also important.

“We have the private sector helping us out, but there is still a great absence from the public sector in that aspect. We must also push for programs providing health services for our elder trans people who need different types of medicine. These are the things we’re still looking forward to,” he said.

Umadhay said that despite the challenges facing the LGBT+ community in Iloilo City, he remains positive and hopeful.

“I’m always grateful to the community because we are not a hard community to teach and at the same time they are very easy to reach because they are very flamboyant. It’s easy to tell them what to do. They can see that the city government is supporting them, which is why they go out and show their support to the community. Iloilo City is small, so many people know each other, which makes it easier to build connections, at least through referrals we can do wider databasing within the community. We’re gradually working towards these, but whatever we’ve achieved for the community so far, it’s already big, since our battle cry only started during the passage of the Anti-Discrimination Ordinance,” he said.

 

 

PRIDE AMID PANDEMIC

According to Umadhay, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) did not spare their office from its brunt, forcing them to step back from activities, including the Pride Month celebrations which were slated to be held this month.

“There were many plans and projects. The most important was for Pride Month this June. Because social gatherings are still prohibited, we stopped all our related functions, especially in the industries with social interactions because there are many members of the LGBT+ community who are involved. That’s why those who are greatly hit by the pandemic in the community are our sectors, which is why the pandemic really hurt the community.”

Umadhay said that the office will push through with Pride Month with several activities in the pipeline, which will be available for everyone, not just members of the community.

“We have a competition for fun, a Pride photo contest, where we will have winners. After that, we will have educational classes which will focus on rights, as well as the self and SOGIE. This will not only be for the members of the community, but also for everyone because we want inclusion.”

Amid the pandemic, Umadhay said the LGBT+ community was also heavily involved in the city’s plans and projects in response to the community lockdowns.

This included cash aid to members of the LGBT+ community worth P2,000, as well as the distribution of 550 grocery packs.

Also, 380 recipients from the community will receive cash aid through the city’s Cash-For-Work program.

“For this pandemic, we were also able to do a lot because we have had special assignments from the mayor. This includes the LGBT cash aid for the community, with 250 recipients already given, with 380 more recipients under the city’s Cash-For-Work program, as well as 550 grocery packs given. We have also employed LGBT+ tailors to make our face masks,” Umadhay said.

The LGBT cash aid was able to help the office expand its database.

“Actually, through the LGBT cash aid, we were able to expand our database. We have already had a database, but we were able to expand its reach because we were able to catch the communities which were silent or less involved. We set the criteria on our Facebook page, a point system because we want our aid distribution to be objective. We put there that we are prioritizing older people and those who have illnesses because they’re the ones needing maintenance medicines, so we were able to provide the aid to them first,” he said.

Umahday said all of the office’s transactions were done online due to the pandemic.

“We have new initiatives now, which is good because the pandemic encouraged us to be more creative with regard to the delivery systems. Right now, we are empowering our Facebook page for open discussions. Our new initiatives for cash aid is that we didn’t list them per barangay, and we did not go to the community. Everything was online, it’s because we want to have less interaction, and that’s just one of the new initiatives. We are showing to the city that we can have online discussions, which are, at the same time, efficient because they can reach a wide gamut,” he added.