Superiority is never Equality

Gretchen Diez was all over the news. The transgender woman who claimed to be discriminated
by a janitress by barring her from using the female restroom at Farmer’s Market in Cubao. Diez
publicized the incident by taking it to FB Live which triggered the anger of the janitress. The
incident was heard by the Senate. Diez took his chance to call for the passing of SOGIE Bill.
But the other side of the row shows otherwise. As per Chayra Ganal, the janitress, there are
women who approached her and complained about the presence of Diez inside the restroom.
She said, she offered the male restroom to Diez but Diez took his phone and recorded the
incident through FB Live. Ganal got mad and took Diez to the security after he refused to delete
the video. Senator Sotto obtained the security footage of the incident and as per him it seemed
to match the statement of Ganal.
Who is telling the truth? Who is seemed to be gaining the sympathy of the people? Who
discriminated who? And who harassed who?
I am a Christian. I am a strong believer of Christianity and I uphold the beliefs and teachings
taught by our church. That God only created an Adam and an Eve.
I have nothing against anyone in the third sex. I respect them. Some of them are my friends.
Some of them are my relatives. And in return, they also respect me. As long as no one is
harming anyone, we live peacefully. With equal rights.
Furthermore, some members of the growing community of LGBT established names in the
different industries. There are lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers, nurses, teachers and
many more to the extent that some of them were elected in government offices. Some of them
are well-known in our society and even internationally. Some of them already achieved highest
of their dreams with their perseverance, intelligence, skills and a lot more. They have my
admiration. Many of us have. But more than that, this only proves that we are in a gay-friendly
country. That they also have equal rights to life and to progress. Another proof is that the
schools and universities conduct gender-sensitivity conferences amongst their students.
Meaning, everyone is respected.
But what Diez did, for me, is already out of hand. He demands to be respected but he himself
did not respect the rights of the women including the janitress who is only doing her job. He
might not still accept the fact that no matter how much he insists that he now belongs to the
female gender with his long hair, make up and dress and that he deserves to be using the
female comfort rooms, there will always be classified boundaries between a naturally born and
the queer community. This is not discrimination. This is equal rights. How?
This is the same reason as to why female and male toilets are separated. This is not only to
make distinctions between the genders but for the safety of both. And this will also be the
reason why it is proposed to have a separate public toilet for the LGBT community – not to
discriminate but to not risk their safety.
The presence of Diez in the female toilet might prompted fear to the women who approached
the janitress. Fear not because Diez belongs to the LGBT community, but fear to the sexual
predators who can dress like a woman and easily prey on their possible victims. They don’t
know Diez. Neither Diez knows them. Therefore, it is understandable to have this fear. Even
though they argue that incident like this has a low probability, still it has a probability. And we
don’t want it to happen. Especially to women who are the most vulnerable of sexual assaults.
And here is Diez, calling for equality- sensationalizing the incident by posting it to social media
and to his interviews. Making it look like he was the only one oppressed. What he did isn’t a call
for equality but for superiority. Insisting his so-called rights by what? Setting aside the rights of
these natural born women? We have equal rights. He should also have respected these. He
should have let the management, the police officers and the people responsible to take action
about the incident to do their work and resolve the case instead of doing what he did.
Anyways, there is still a broad discussion about gender sensitivity and equality. I will keep track
of this issue but I will strongly take my stand against Diez statements and advocacies. Not
because I’m biased but because I believe that superiority is never equality.