Jul 22, 2020
Transgression and Oppression
“May utin ka parin. Tandaan mo ‘yan. (You still have a penis. Remember that)”, such were the words that the janitress from a mall in Cubao said to Gretchen Custodio Diez, a transgender woman who was restricted from using the female restroom. Diez was allegedly going live on Facebook while inside the restroom when the janitress prompted to confront her.
This case has created quite a buzz on all platforms in the Philippines a year ago. From official news outlets to parody accounts that discussed every bit of the incident, it has piqued the interest of almost every citizen. At its peak, it reached a thorough discourse in the highest law-making offices of the Philippines.
As alarming as it may be, this is only one of the few fights that the LGBT community continue to face. As long as the time that passed have been, the underlying issue of the discrimination towards the LGBT community is still afloat. Even with the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) bill implemented in the country, there is still confusion and lack of information about it, and this leads to an ineffective implementation; a heavy stigma surrounds it and the hypocritical religious opinions cloud it.
Despite all the years that have passed, from the famous Stonewall Riots until now, the LGBT community has continuously fought for something which should have already been granted to them in the first place: human rights. As in the aforementioned SOGIE bill, discriminating people and depriving them of basic services (right to a job, education, health services, etc.) on the sole basis of their gender or sexual orientation is considered illegal. This, in the first place, should not have been a law because it should be common decency — not discriminating people.
The fact of the matter is, many members of the LGBT community already went through an atrocious amount of suffering and discrimination that law had to step in to regulate people… to regulate humanity.
In this day and age, when everything is perceived to be new, bold, “millennial”, there are still a lot of people who reject change. There is something in strength that most people are afraid of, that is why they try to suppress it with discrimination and make the LGBT community feel small. I have pondered the common reasons why such is happening, and it might already be something you know of.
- Religious beliefs. “There is only Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”, says a Catholic’s poster standing at the end of a pride rally. In this perspective, the religious only limit their spectrum of identity to two genders: man and woman, those of which capable of actualizing God’s command of going into the world and multiplying. As homosexuality is seen as something not capable of that, everything it then encompasses is automatically against the teachings of the Lord. However, what other argument is there? Are the religious being selective in what they preach and practice? What about the “love your neighbor” command? Is the love limited only to whom they deem worthy of giving it to?
- Inherent evil. As horrible as it may sound, there are just some people who rejoice in stepping over someone. It might be a psychological condition that triggers them to commit such acts to elevate their ego, but the reality is that there truly are people who never view the LGBT community as equals worthy of respect and dignity just because. They might have had a wrong upbringing, a lack of morals, or a bad experience that they think would justify their indecent acts, but these shallow excuses have dragged victims into deep trauma.
- Outdated traditions. One of the rusting arguments that people use to discriminate against the LGBT community, especially the transgender women, is that they cannot bear children, thus, not real women. However, the ability to bear children is not the real measure of womanhood because there are a lot of women who cannot and would not do so for a multitude of reasons. Furthermore, society has only ever seen men and women in public together that seeing people of different sexual and/or gender orientations in public together is shocking. So shocking that it is actually sinful for some and enough for them to think that it is okay to discriminate. This tradition of oppression towards the LGBT community is taxing.
- Counter-productivity. Another argument that has been thrown to the SOGIE bill and its effect is that sexual and gender identity has no permanency which can be used as basis over which one practices respect over another [in the LGBT community]. To some, identifying as another gender could just be a “phase” which they could grow out of when the stage of experimentation has come to pass. Plausible as it may sound when explained with legal terms, it still does not begin to explain why there has to be indications for people to choose to respect people of different orientations. Regardless of whether one is straight or not, regardless of whether it is a permanent identity or a phase, they deserve to be treated like a human being should be.
The points for discussion of the LGBT community are numerous and open-ended. For all the countless deaths that have been brought by discrimination and hatred, petitions and rallies will continue. Truly, the fight will never be over as long as transgression and oppression in their community is rampant.
