LGBT culture in the Philippines

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Philippines have a distinctive culture but
limited legal rights. Gays and lesbians are generally tolerated, if not accepted, within Filipino society, but
there is still widespread discrimination. The most visible members of the Filipino LGBT culture, the
Bakla, are a distinct group in the Philippines.
According to the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey, 11% of sexually active Filipinos
between the ages of 15 and 24 have had sex with someone of the same sex. [1]
Filipino poet and critic Lilia Quindoza Santiago has speculated that Filipino culture may have a more
flexible concept of gender because kasarian, the Tagalog word for "gender", is defined in less binary
terms than the English word gender.[2] Kasarian means "kind, species, or genus".[3] The English word
gender originally also meant "kind".[citation needed]

Bakla
Main article: Bakla (Philippines)
A bakla is a gay man who displays feminine mannerisms, dresses as a woman, or identifies as a woman.
The term itself is not the equivalent of the English term "gay",[4] but bakla are the most culturally visible
subset of gay men in the Philippines. They are often considered a third gender, embodying femaleness
(pagkababae) in a male body.[5][6] The term bakla is sometimes used in a derogatory sense, although bakla
people have largely embraced it.
Bakla individuals are socially and economically integrated into Filipino society and are considered an
important part of society. The stereotype of a bakla is a parlorista, a cross-dresser who works in a beauty
salon.[7] Miss Gay Philippines is a beauty pageant for bakla.

Slang terms for LGBT people and concepts

In the Philippines, the term gay is used in reference to any LGBT person. For Filipino gays, the Tagalog
phrase paglaladlad ng kapa ("unfurling the cape"), or more commonly just paglaladlad ("unfurling" or
"unveiling") refers to the coming-out process. Tibo, T-Bird and tomboy are derogatory terms for butch
lesbians just as bakla is for effeminate gay men. Some lesbians, both butch and femme, use the terms
magic or shunggril to refer to themselves.[4] Neutral slang terms for gay men include billy boy, badette,
bading, and paminta (straight-acting gay man).
While many of these terms are generally considered derogatory, they are sometimes used casually or
jokingly within the Filipino gay and lesbian community. For example, gay men often refer to their gay
friends as bakla when talking to each other.

LGBT rights

Main article: LGBT rights in the Philippines

Although legislation supporting same-sex marriage in the Philippines has been proposed several times to
the Philippine legislature, none has ever been passed. [8]
The Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) disqualified the Filipino LGBT political party
Ang Ladlad from running in the 2007 general election when COMELEC concluded that Ang Ladlad did
not have nationwide membership.[9] COMELEC again refused Ang Ladlad's petition for permission to run
in the 2010 elections, this time on grounds of "immorality". [10] However, on 8 April 2010 the Supreme
Court of the Philippines overturned the decision of COMELEC and allowed Ang Ladlad to participate in
the May 2010 elections.[11]
The Philippines has recently been ranked as one of the most gay-friendly nations in the world, and the
most gay-friendly in Asia. On a global survey covering 39 countries, only 17 of which had majorities
accepting homosexuality, the Philippines ranking as the 10th most gay-friendly. The survey titled The
Global Divide on Homosexuality conducted by the US-based Pew Research Center showed that 73
percent of adult Filipinos agreed with the statement that homosexuality should be accepted by society,
up by nine percentage points from 64 percent in 2002. [12]

Swardspeak
Swardspeak, or "gay lingo", is a cant slang derived from Englog (a Tagalog-English pidgin) and is used
by a number of homosexuals in the Philippines.[13] Swardspeak uses elements from Tagalog, English,
Spanish and Japanese, as well as celebrities' names and trademark brands, giving them new meanings in
different contexts.[14] It is largely localized within gay communities and uses words derived from local
languages or dialects, including Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Bicolano, and/or other Philippine
languages.
The use of Swardspeak once immediately identified the speaker as homosexual, making it easy for people
of that orientation to recognize each other. This created an exclusive group among its speakers and helped
them resist cultural assimilation. More recently, though, straight people have also started to use this way
of speaking, particularly in industries dominated by gays, such as the fashion and film industries.
LGBT Politics: In the Philippines, the Communist Party of the Philippines Marxist-Leninist and Maoist
revolutionary proletarian party in the Philippines are the one and first to introduce and promote the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. They recognize the LGBT as part of the bulk of the masses that
can encourage and recruit for their revolutionary work. The revolutionary leader admitted that in their
rank. The wide spread of sexual intercourse within their rank and same sex that brought their party
principle to set a guideline for those belong with the LGBT's. They also allow to married their fellow
same sex revolutionary party member as long it will not affect their revolutionary task in the party
organization. Document of the CPP-MLM guideline "Gabay Para sa Rebolusyunaryong
Pakikipagrelasyon at Pagpapakasal" .