Friday, March 29, 2024

Pride and Prejudice

Vol. XCI No. 4


Recently, another issue in relation to the LGBTQ+ co­munity surfaced after a Trans woman was harassed for using the ladies’ toilet of a mall in Quezon City. More­over, the person involved was handcuffed and detained due to unjust vexation filed by the mall itself. However, according to the ABS-CBN News report, the accused was already released night of Aug. 13 after the mall dropped the complaint.

On the other hand, the janitress wrote an apology letter and stated, “Tao lang po ako, hindi ko po sinasadya na ma-offend siya. Willing po akong pag-aralan ang mga karapatan ng LGBT.” Further, the janitress mentioned on the mall’s lack of a clear restroom policy for transgender people.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros also condemned the harassment incident and expressed her full support and willingness to ex­tend whatever help the transgender needs to seek justice.

Amidst all these is the fact that Quezon City has been known to pass city ordinances that protect people from dis­crimination based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.

June has been celebrated as the pride month wherein activities that promote LGBTQ+ rights, acceptance and strength are held. This particular celebration is not only in the Philippines but also throughout the world. People strive hard to educate the human mind that they exist and that they also have the right to live the life they want, putting away the fires of discrimination and abuse that literally burns them physically and emotionally. Overtime, the topic on gender preference became a norm due to the relevance and prevalence of the topic on the current society and laws created to protect everyone against discrimination.

Given those mentioned ideas, the simplest mind now begs the question, why do these issues on discrimination continue to occur?

tWS believes that the issue on the trans gender’s fate upon using the female comfort room reflects the simple Filipino’s par­tial stand on gender identity. Discrimination with the LGBTQ+ community will continue to repeat again in the future, unless the community learns to accept and respect heterosexuality com­pletely. Although efforts have been made to educate the public, the continuous incident of violence against them made the whole effort futile in the end, or at least at some part of the perceived end.

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