Marc Efren A.

Roxas CWTS
BSME-1 July 3, 2022

“Gender and Development”

CWTS Reaction Paper

My reaction about this webinar is very cheerful and vibrant since it presents a lot of
ways towards uncompromising gender rights. This webinar is all about embracing and learning those
sexually-related topics to inform us about how different genders work. And speaking about one of the
two speakers, I’m really happy that she’s a literal trans woman and beauty queen to prove to us that
having an unusual gender shouldn’t bring us down. For this webinar, it is a really relevant one to
realize that gender is all about a challenge towards equality, even in the LGBTQIA+ community.
Without further ado, let’s get this webinar summary started.
The first speaker of the Gender and Development webinar is Mx. Elle Aspilla and she
talks about the “SOGIE 101”. First, she talks about being a student government president at DLSU-
Laguna, a winning transgender beauty queen, and a gender equality advocate. She literally
mentioned that she won the “Miss Trans Global Philippines – Laguna” title. She also talks about the
gender equality as a struggle of human rights where most of the LGBTQIA+ people really suffer. And
finally, she talks about the “Gender Unicorn” where it gives an overview regarding SOGIESC in a
creative way. That particular Unicorn has the expression around it and it splits into gender identity,
sexual orientation and sex characteristics to properly convey our sexual perspective. Overall, her first
webinar is all about “Gender Reveal Party” to showcase and explain those sexually-related concepts
like gender expression, gender identity, differences between transgender and cisgender, and the
SOGIE Equality Bill to make our lives alive and vibrant despite the inevitable discrimination. The
second and last speaker of this webinar is Atty. Cheryl Arni F. Macutay-Alviar, CPA and she talks
about the “Republic Act No. 11313: Safe Spaces Act (Bawal Bastos Law)”. First, she talks about her
profession as a lawyer who focuses sexual rights, being a certified public accountant and having her
very own law firm. She literally mentioned and detailed about the Safe Spaces Act together with their
respective definitions of four kinds of gender-based crimes. And finally, she explains about those
kinds of gender-based crimes like street and public spaces sexual harassment that includes catcalling
and stalking, online sexual harassment that includes invasion of victim’s privacy and online identity
theft, sexual harassment in the workplace that involves unwelcome sexual advances and demand for
various sexual favors that could have a detrimental effect on the conditions of an individual’s
employment or education, and sexual harassment in educational and training institution that involves
many sexual crimes previously mentioned but set in a particular school or university. Overall, her
second and last webinar is all about protection and awareness against different sexual crimes to
ensure our sexual security and to make ourselves confidently safe as usual.
To conclude about this webinar, we should take care of our gender rights by legalizing
and following those gender-related laws such as the SOGIE Equality Bill and Safe Spaces Act.
Honestly, it’s up to ourselves on how we respect every single gender to inspire and encourage them.
Those gender-related issues are highly relevant in our today’s ever-changing society to ease their
sexual lives towards a very peaceful and colorful world. And at the end of the day, it is important that
we should be willing to respect their sexual lives, whether he or she is a cisgender or a transgender.
That’s all of my takeaways about this webinar and as always, stay safe.