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L AW POLIT IXXX YOUTH

Love Thy Neighbor: We should

pass the SOGIE Equality Bill
Now!
By Liam Atienza November 9, 2020 ! 0 " 64

# $ % &

US President-elect Joe Biden, in his historic first speech

a!er winning the US election, addressed transgender
people and other members of the LGBTQIA+
community. It is the first time a newly-elected US
president has ever done it in an acceptance speech.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, a video of a transwoman

being verbally assaulted by a lady while walking down
the street went viral online. This sparked heated
conversations once again about the plight of
transgender people in the Philippines. The incident has
also brought the SOGIE Equality Bill back to the
headlines with hashtags like #SOGIEEqualityNow,
#AchibDisBill, and #PassADBNow trending on Twitter for
several weeks now.

The people from the LGBTQIA+ community have been

fighting for the enactment of the SOGIE Equality Bill into
law. Through this bill, members of LGBTQIA+ and
others, regardless of their gender identities, are going to
receive legal protection from plethora of gender-based
discrimination, violence and abuse.

Before we discuss what SOGIE Equality Bill is about, let

us first define what SOGIE is. Basically, SOGIE stands for
Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression.

It is also essential to first point out that gender is a

social construct, and it is di"erent from sex which is the
genital organ you have at birth. As a social construct,
the formation and performance of gender are,
therefore, contingent to the culture, norms and
institutions that regulate it. For instance, within the
context of Philippine culture and society, the “woman”
connotes meanings like “maganda”, “mahinhin” at
“masunurin sa asawa” while “man” connotes being
“malakas”, “matipuno”, and “maginoo medyo bastos.”
These perceptions of what being a man or a woman is
about might di"er from other cultures like in the case of
Amazonian or Nordic women who are not perceived as
submissive to men. In short, gender as opposed to sex is
not a natural phenomenon but a social and cultural
construct. A woman is a gender, while female is sex.
While a person who is born with vagina is generally
considered as female, not every female is a woman. To
be a woman, a girl has to achieve certain level of
disposition. In the same way, not every woman is a
female or has a vagina— while all women have balls
figuratively speaking, some have it literally.

Now, let’s talk about sexual orientation which is

basically what sex one is attracted to. It can be one,
more than one, it can also be none. In this umbrella, we
use the terms ‘heterosexual’ (people attracted to the
opposite sex); ‘homosexual’ (also known as gays,
lesbians, and many others, are people attracted to the
same sex); ‘bisexual’ (can be attracted on both sexes);
‘asexual’ (people who do not have sexual attraction);
and ‘pansexual’ (people who can be attracted to
everyone regardless of their sex or gender), among
others.

On the other hand, gender identity radiates from one’s

inner sense of self. Here, we can see if one is ‘cisgender’
(someone whose gender ‘matches’ his/her/their
biological sex); and ‘transgender’ (someone whose
gender is opposite to his/her/their biological sex).
Gender expression is based on how one identifies
himself/herself/themselves as. These are socially-
constructed notions such as masculinity, femininity,
being genderqueer, et cetera.

The SOGIE Equality Bill

The SOGIE Equality Bill, otherwise known as the Anti-

Discrimination Bill (ADB) has been in Congress as early
as 2017. It ignited controversy in 2019 when Gretchen
Diez, a transgender woman was harassed while trying to
enter the women’s bathroom.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, one of the supporters of the

bill, posted an infographic that shows the
misconceptions about the bill and what the bill really is
about— that is, to protect the rights of people
regardless of what their SOGIE is.

It is always important to know that gender-based

divides are still present up to this day, especially to
people from the LGBTQIA+ community. If you take a
look at the provisions of the SOGIE bill, it clearly states
that protection from discrimination is inclusive to
everyone.

The bill is all about putting the LGBTQIA+ community

into the society by giving them the spotlight or positive
a"irmation in workplaces, in schools, and other social
services that should and must be celebrated by
everyone.

Photo taken from Sen. Hontiveros’ Facebook page.

Aside from the ones mentioned by Senator Hontiveros,

one thing that bothers me a lot is that some people
claim that the SOGIE bill tolerates pedophilia and
necrophilia. To begin with, these are not part of the
LGBTQIA+ spectrum. The SOGIE bill is for people
regardless of their gender, and the gender that they are
attracted to. The likes of pedophilia and necrophilia,
albeit related to sexual desire, do not involve attraction
to a certain gender.

The SOGIE bill also does not unduly favor the LGBTQIA+
community over anybody else. Everybody has their
own SOGIE, and this bill basically protects everyone
from all forms of discrimination. Everybody deserves to
freely express themselves and equally celebrate their
rights.

Conclusion

For the longest time, the LGBTQIA+ community has

been the face of entertainment and ridicule. Gay and
transgender people are viewed as clowns and
entertainers. But this begs the question: how can we
make other people happy when we ourselves cannot
celebrate our own happiness?

The SOGIE Equality Bill is long overdue. It has to be

passed now! The era when being members of LGBTQIA+
is considered as taboo, immoral and a disgrace to one’s
family should stop now!

We should understand and accept that everyone,

regardless of their SOGIE, is valid.

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TAGS anti-discrimination law philippines

lgbt discrimination in the philippines LGBT in the Philippines

SOGIE Bill What is gender? what is SOGIE?

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