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ince Liban was still a political science student at the University of the Philippines when he experienced bullying. One such incident made him realize that it was also a case of discrimination: the bullies had picked on him because he had his hair dyed blonde at the time and was noticeably effeminate.
Four boys he didn’t know had waylaid him in an alleyway near the university. One asked him, “Were you the one I had oral sex with?” The boy then followed that up with a demand for money supposedly so they wouldn’t tell on him. But then Liban saw a group of men drinking nearby. Sensing they would help if he caught their attention, he yelled, “I don’t know you!” at the boys, then ran away.
Liban, however, would encounter discrimination once more when he applied for a government job later. He remembered thinking that the human resources (HR) personnel were being homophobic after “implying that I’m gay, and told me that I can’t have the job because of my blonde hair.”
Instead of accepting the rejection, Liban declared outright that, yes, he is gay, but he still has the right to employment if qualified. “I made it clear that I’m in the LGBQT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) sector who has rights, so they changed tack,” he recounted to Asia Democracy Chronicles (ADC).
He got the job, but obeyed the HR directive to dye his hair back to black. He ended up leaving the company anyway. It was not an environment where someone of his gender identity could thrive, he said.
Now 28 years old and back to his blonde hair, Liban works as the chief legislative officer of the Philippine House of Representatives. He is also the national convener of the Philippine Anti-Discrimination Alliance of Youth Leaders (PANTAY), a youth organization promoting human rights and gender equality. Pantay means “equal” in Filipino.
Global indicators show that predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines is still LGBTQ+-friendly, notwithstanding its significant drop in ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index between 2023 and 2024. In 2024, the Philippines ranked 25th out of 146 economies in terms of progress toward gender parity across four dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, education, health, and political empowerment. This is down nine notches from its previous year’s ranking in the same index, 16th out of 146 countries.
The Philippines also ranked 36th among 175 countries in the 2021 LGBTQ+ social acceptance index (1981 to 2020) of the Williams Institute School of Law of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The country’s rank is based on its index scores between 2017 and 2020.
A 2017 study covering six countries in Southeast Asia revealed as well that Filipinos had the lowest levels of homonegativity among the respondents.
Yet in the last two decades or so, rights advocates have faced an uphill struggle in getting the country’s legislators to pass a national-level comprehensive policy addressing discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
“There are many stories of discrimination,” said Liban, who through PANTAY helps young people, mostly students, who experience discrimination due to their sexual orientations. “If these were not addressed, it could have been harder for me and for others who experienced it.”
Protection for all
Last June 14, in observance of Pride Month, Liban represented PANTAY in a news conference of the Equality Alliance. Composed of 200 organizations from the LGBTQ+ community, youth, women, the private sector, and religious groups, the Alliance asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to certify as urgent the SOGIESC equality bill pending in Congress.
“If the bill is enacted into law,” Liban said, “communities and institutions will adopt inclusive policies that will contribute to the country’s economic development.”
Geraldine Roman, the first transgender congresswoman in the Philippine House of Representatives, said as well that once enacted into law, the SOGIESC bill “will protect all Filipinos, regardless of their gender identities, against discrimination in the workplace, schools, public establishments, and the community.”
The bill’s first version, an employment non-discrimination bill, was filed in 2000, but for years remained stalled in the Senate due to resistance from conservative and religious groups.
The current version, the SOGIESC Equality Bill, is being stopped by politicians who believe it will allow same-sex unions, provide special privileges to LGBTQ+ members, and hamper parental authority and religious freedom.
One of those opposed to it is Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, who has claimed that the intention of the SOGIESC bill is same-sex marriage, which he said would destroy the family and violate the country’s laws.
“We cannot pass this kind of legislation and just let things be,” Villanueva said. “We will destroy all of the laws we passed; that’s the bottom line. They want same-sex marriage? Let’s not fool each other.”
The legislator, son of Jesus is Lord religious group founder Eddie Villanueva, also said, “If you cannot respect the word of God, if you cannot respect the Bible, please respect the beliefs of our countrymen. We cannot just disregard these and say that this is because this is being done in other countries.”
There is no mention of same-sex marriage in the bill. It does, however, consider several actions as discriminatory, among them denying access to public services because of an individual’s SOGIESC, having SOGIESC among the criteria for hiring, promoting, or terminating employees, and refusing admission or expelling an individual from an education institution because of the student’s SOGIESC.
Although dominantly Christian and mostly Catholic, the Philippines practices separation of Church and state. And while there are religious conservatives like Villanueva who oppose the bill, there are also members of the religious community, such as prominent Benedictine nun and rights advocate Sister Mary John Mananzan, who support it.
Referring to the proposed legislation’s supposed focus on LGBTQ+, Mananzan told the Senate in 2019: “I don’t see that this bill is giving any special right to this group. They are just saying that the rights of everybody should also be applied to them.”
“As a religious woman,” she continued, “I believe in the respect, compassion, and reverence for all persons because I believe they were all made in the image and likeness of God.”
More recently, lawyer Clara Rita Padilla, executive director of EnGendeRights, said, “Our legislators should be mindful that they are elected officials who must enact laws based on secular standards and not religious morals. Opposing the passage of the law would violate the constitutional guarantee of non-establishment of religion. Our laws and governance should not be based on religious morals.”
Local initiatives
In the absence of a national SOGIESC law, some local governments have been passing up anti-discrimination ordinances. The Equality Alliance has identified 11 provinces, 24 towns, and 43 cities, where 38 percent of the country’s 110 million population reside, with such ordinances. That means, however, that the majority of Filipinos or 62 percent live in areas that are without anti-discrimination policies, including some of the cities in Metro Manila, the National Capital Region.
Liban said the LGBTQ+ youth and students under the UP Babaylan, the country’s longest-existing LGBQT+ student organization, have participated in lobbying communities to adopt anti-discrimination policies, starting in Metro Manila’s largest city, Quezon City, which passed the country’s first such ordinance in 2003.
“The early ordinances inspired our movement to continue lobbying for safe spaces,” said Liban.“ (But) the current laws are not enough. The glimmer of redress is not enough. It is difficult to protect discriminated victims and survivors if there are weak protections.”
A recent graduate of a state university outside Manila, for instance, went through a long process of getting his clearance and transcript of records as punishment for wearing make-up.
“When I asked why they kept delaying my record despite my graduating with honors (cum laude) without any incomplete grades,” he told ADC, “they asked me to write an apology letter for violating school policy for wearing makeup.” He said that he did as told just so he could move on.
Among the students PANTAY has helped are a male gay and a transgender from two different science high schools in the country. The intervention was fruitful for the male gay student who eventually finished as class valedictorian. But the transgender who was cited for frequently not wearing the school uniform was barred from graduating.
Liban said that after some interventions – including elevating the transgender student’s case to the Commission on Human Rights, a state agency – the school allowed the student to attend the graduation march, but did not give clearance. The traumatized student developed depression and lost interest in pursuing further studies and his goals.
Liban pointed out that bullying, harassment, and other discriminatory practices in schools that do not have supportive measures demoralize LGBTQ+ students and undermine their right to education, among others. Outside of schools, these practices weaken young LGBTQ+s from reaching their potentials.
“Students who face discrimination need assistance because teachers don’t know how to address these concerns,” said Liban, adding that the situation can be worse in other places where young people are not protected. “Our goal is to create more schools for LGBTQ+ students to thrive and to be given the chance to study and to be understood like the rest of the students.”
Yet while rights advocates like him say that having a SOGIESC law will ensure that everyone across the country is protected from discrimination, they also concede that no legislation can stop such. At the very least, however, those who are discriminated against will have legal redress; a law may also help people think twice before acting based simply on someone’s SOGIESC.
Legislator Roman, stressing the urgent need to pass the SOGIESC bill, said, “There are local leaders who are not as understanding of our situations, that’s why we would like the President to certify this bill as urgent.”
Liban summed it up simply: “When there is no discrimination, when no one gets isolated and hurt, we will all feel happy and equal.” ◉
