AN AWARENESS forum concerning the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community held on February 7 at the SEC-B Lecture Hall focused on the issues surrounding sexual and gender categorization. Entitled “Contradictions: Co-existing Sexualities,” the forum was held as part of the School of Social Sciences (SOSS) Week’s LGBT Day.

It was a collaborative project between student political party Christian Union for Socialist and Democratic Advancement (Crusada) and the SOSS Week 2013 committee.

“Boy, girl, bakla, tomboy. Ang diskurso natin tungkol sa ating seksuwalidad ay napo-polarize lang doon sa apat na ‘yan. (Boy, girl, bakla, tomboy. Our discourse on sexuality is polarized only between those four categories.),” said forum head Kevin Mizon.

“This project is the political response to this kind of homogenizing.”

Speakers for the forum included transgender University of the Philippines (UP) Babaylan member Pat Bringas, communications technology management major Jake Jereza and Ladlad party-list candidate Atty. Raymond Alikpala (AB MEco ‘88). Fr. Luis David, SJ, originally slated to speak as well, couldn’t make it to the event.

SOSS Week 2013 was held from February 4 to 9.

Insights from speakers

Bringas, who is also the head of the Gender Committee of UP’s University Student Council, talked about the distinctions between different sexual orientations and gender identities.

“We don’t like labeling because it kind of limits us… But labeling is also good for better understanding, for identification [purposes], but not necessarily to box you,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.

She also talked about the activities of UP Babaylan, the state university’s premier LGBT organization.

Jereza, meanwhile, asked the audience “to be [their] own kind of queer.”

“I feel that there’s a lot of intra-LGBT hate going on still, like the kind [of people who say] ‘I don’t like bisexuals or I don’t like beckies because they give [being] gay a bad name,’” Jereza said.

“But it’s an entire spectrum of gender and sexuality combined in infinite combinations. You really can’t help but to have these kinds of people around,” he added. Jereza also shared about his relationship with his boyfriend.

Alikpala, on the other hand, talked about how he faced the difficulties brought about by his sexuality throughout his life. He recounted how his conservative Catholic upbringing urged him to hide in the closet when he was younger.

Alikpala became a lawyer and even began training as a Jesuit novice. It was only after working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Cambodia, deep into his 30s, did he decide to finally come out.

His book Of God and Men was his coming out story as a gay man.

“I’m a man, a lawyer who has worked with the UN and helped refugees all over the world, and now I’m running for Congress. I have never stolen a dishonest dollar or cent in my entire life. I love everyone. My life is full of love,” said Alikpala.

“If someone tells me that God hates me because I’m gay, then I’m going to tell him or her that ‘Sorry, your God is smaller than my God. My God is bigger than your God. My God understands gay people,’” he added.

Mizon, who found the speakers’ choices of topic “really fresh,” said that the forum achieved its objectives.

“The basic questions that people [ask] have been answered already,” he said. “Not fully, but at least they understand more.”

Management major Peepoy Racines, who attended the forum, said, “The LGBT talk was very informative for me because I didn’t know that there is an actual organization for the LGBT inside the UP campus that is very active inside and out.”

“It is very helpful for the people who seek help because it tells them that there’s someone there that will help [them],” he added.

Updated 10:35 PM, May 18, 2013.