If you oppose the Sogie bill

BY ANTONIO CONTRERAS
AUGUST 24, 2019
ANTONIO CONTRERAS, Author at The Manila Times
The Manila Times is the oldest extant English-language newspaper in the Philippines.

YOU say that you have no problem with lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals
(LGBT). You even claim that you have LGBT friends and you love them. But you
oppose the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (Sogie) Equality bill.
Perhaps it hasn’t crossed your mind, but allow me to inform you of the things that you
actually tolerate because you oppose the Sogie bill.
You agree that the LGBT, which include your friends, can be denied access to public
services, including military service, simply because of who they are.
You do not have any problem if sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, as
well as the disclosure of sexual orientation, becomes part of the criteria for hiring,
promotion, transfer, designation, work assignment, reassignment, dismissal of workers,
and other human resource movement and actions, performance review; and in the
determination of employee compensation, access to career development opportunities,
training and other learning and development interventions, incentives, privileges,
benefits or allowances, and other terms and conditions of employment.
You support educational or training institutions refusing admission or expelling a person
on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. In addition, you also
support discriminating against a student or trainee due to the sexual orientation or
gender identity or expression of the student’s parents or guardians. You also do not
oppose the imposition of disciplinary sanctions and penalties that are harsher than
customary or similar punishments, requirements, restrictions or prohibitions that infringe
on the rights of the students because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity
or expression, or that of his or her parents or guardians.
You do not have a problem if a group or organization is refused accreditation, formal
recognition or registration, or if such would be revoked solely on the basis of the sexual
orientation or gender identity or expression of their members of their target
constituencies.
You support denying your LGBT friends access to public or private medical and other
health services open to the general public on the basis of their being LGBT. Moreover,
you have no problem if your LGBT friends are denied their application for a professional
or other similar kind of license, clearance, certification, or any other similar document
issued by the government, or if such could be revoked simply because they are
members of the LGBT.
You will also advise your LGBT friends to just accept it if they are denied access to or
the use of establishments, facilities, utilities, or services, including housing, open to the
general public on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
It is perfectly acceptable for you if your LGBT friends will be subjected or forced to
undertake any medical or psychological examination to determine or alter, or both, their
sexual orientation or gender identity or expression without their consent. You also have
no problem if your LGBT friends will be harassed, coerced or threatened by members of
institutions involved in the enforcement of law and the protection of rights such as the
police, and the quasi-judicial and judicial bodies.
You approve of your discreet LGBT friends being outed maliciously, without their
consent, and primarily motivated by a desire for commercial profit.
You tolerate people who engage in public speech meant to shame, insult, vilify, or which
tends to incite or normalize the commission of discriminatory practices against the
LGBTs, and which acts or practices in turn intimidate them or result in the loss of their
self-esteem. You have no problem if your LGBT friends are subjected to harassment,
which may be conducted through any form or medium, and which could include acts
that tend to annoy, insult, bully, demean, offend, threaten, intimidate, alarm or create a
hostile or distressing environment, or put them in fear of their safety simply because
they are LGBT.
It is perfectly acceptable for you to subject your LGBT friends, particularly those who
have not publicly disclosed their identities, to gender profiling or to any investigatory
activities. This includes the conduct of unnecessary, unjustified, illegal or degrading
searches to determine whether they are engaged in an activity presumed to be
unlawful, immoral or socially unacceptable, or of recording and analyzing their
psychological and behavioral characteristics to make generalizations about their
sexuality.
Finally, you tolerate children manifesting early tendencies of being LGBT to be
threatened with or subjected to actual bodily harm, or to suffer mental distress through
intimidation, harassment, public ridicule or humiliation, or repeated verbal abuse.
If you truly have no problem with the LGBT, why would you tacitly support these acts?
These acts are precisely those that the Sogie bill, which you oppose, would seek to
outlaw and penalize.
You cannot say you accept the LGBT and then oppose the Sogie bill. When you say
you have no problem with the LGBT, and then follow it with a “but,” then you are in
denial. You have a problem. You rationalize because deep in your heart you know that
you are prejudiced. You even use religion as your excuse with your preposterous claim
that the Sogie bill will prevent you from exercising your faith. You claim to be straight.
So how can the Sogie bill deny you the free exercise of your religion? What kind of
religion would be violated just because you would fight for the rights of a cohort of
people against discrimination?
Acceptance of the LGBT is easier said. But it will remain hollow unless you accept that
sexuality is a continuum, that being LGBT is not a disease that could be cured, or a sin
that can just be exorcised or prayed over with. You have to realize that your LGBT
friends and people like them do not just need acceptance or tolerance, but are entitled
to rights which the Sogie bill, which you oppose, vows to protect and ensure.