The Philippines has a contradictory relationship with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

LGBT people are clearly visible in the Philippine mainstream media. Boy Abunda, the nation’s most prominent talk show host is openly gay. Vice Ganda, another openly gay talk show host and comedian, starred in two of the highest-grossing Filipino films of all time. And just last June, singer Charice Pempengco, known to the press as “the most talented girl in the world,” came out as lesbian on national television.

On another note, the Philippine LGBT Hate Crime Watch also reports a total of 164 people killed from 1996 to June 2012. And yet the country currently has no nation-wide law protecting LGBTs from discrimination.

The issues that LGBTs face aren’t limited to just national ones. In the Ateneo, the Dollhouse–the university’s most prominent LGBT group–was recently attacked for failing to properly representing the school’s LGBT population.

Despite this, the country is considered to be one of the most “gay-friendly” nations in the world. In a June 2013 survey conducted by the US-based Pew Research Center, 73% of adult Filipinos agreed with the statement “Homosexuality should be accepted by society.” The other 26% disagreed with the statement and the remaining 1% refused to answer.

Deceptive acceptance

Regardless of what survey results indicate, some Filipinos believe that the country still has a long way to go before it can truly say that it is gay-friendly.

“There is a deceptive kind of acceptance when it comes to LGBTs,” Ron De Vera of the International Day Against Homophobia Manila Network said in an interview with Rappler. He says, “Philippine society has typified LGBTs as creative, talented, loud entertainers who are expected to stay in their neat little boxes.”

“The minute we ask for the same rights that heterosexuals have, we become a threat,” he adds.

Similar stereotypes also exist in Philippine media, where gays and lesbians are characterized as effeminate cross dressers and butch tomboys. These characters are also usually seen as the comic relief or sidekick in television shows and movies.

However, such stereotypes aren’t necessarily harming the LGBT community, says Miguel Lizada, an instructor at the English Department. “[We need to understand that] gender doesn’t necessarily translate to sexuality. One’s own brand of femininity or masculinity has nothing to do with their sexual orientation.”

In a 2011 article for The GUIDON entitled “Bakla,” writers Andrew C. Syling and Jee Y. Geronimo interviewed Dr. Francisco Navarro of the Chinese Studies Program. Navarro observes that Philippine society is not “open to talking about these kinds of issues.” He adds that society treats LGBTs as just “being there.”

The nation and homosexuality

Syling and Geronimo also interviewed Mira Alexis Ofreneo of the Psychology Department. She notes that there are two views of homosexuality present in the Philippines: That it is a sin or that it is a sickness. According to Ofreneo, these two notions come from the country’s colonial experiences from Spain and the United States.

The notion of homosexuality as a disease comes from the psychological models brought by the Americans. It was considered to be a mental disorder until the American Psychological Association removed it from the list in 1973.

The same article states that the institutionalization of the Roman Catholic Church gave rise to the culture of machismo, leading to the strong homophobic sentiments within the country. The Church itself does not condemn homosexuality, though it does not tolerate homosexual acts.

Just recently, however, Pope Francis released a statement saying, “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?” Unlike his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who signed a document in 2005 stating that homosexuals could not be priests, Pope Francis shows a more conciliatory side. His statement could lead to a shift in Church authorities’ attitude towards homosexuality.

There is also the problem of legislation. Although places like Quezon City, Angeles, Cebu, Bacolod and Davao have anti-discrimination ordinances in place, the Philippines currently has no nationwide law protecting LGBTs from prejudicial treatment. In 2006 alone, four anti-discrimination bills were filed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but as of July 2013, no bill has been passed protecting LGBTs.

Dinagat Islands Representative Arlene Bag-ao, however, filed House Bill 110 or the Anti-Discrimination Act last July 1. This bill aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity.

A similar bill, the Anti-Discrimination Act of 2010 or House Bill 1483, was filed by Bayan-Muna partylist Rep. Teodoro Casiño. This particular bill been pending before the House committee on women and gender equality since November of 2011.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Racial, Ethnic and Anti-Religious Act of 2011, which includes provisions on discrimination based on sexual orientation, is currently awaiting passage in the Senate.

The Senate bill has received opposition from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), which wants the provisions protecting LGBTs from discrimination to be removed. According to a statement by CBCP lawyer Ronald Reyes, they believe that said provisions will open doors for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Closer to home

The most prominent presence of the LGBT community in the Ateneo is the Dollhouse, a group that is often misconstrued to be an organization that fights for equal rights and just treatment.

On July 20, 2013, Christian D. Cejalvo reported about the Dollhouse elections in an online article for The GUIDON entitled “New Queen Mother: Bring back the ‘golden age’ of Dollhouse.”  In the article, management of applied chemistry senior and newly elected Dollhouse Queen Mother Gelo Echon, says, “We are the LGBT representative of the Ateneo and has always been for the past 14 years.” Echon’s statement was met with widespread criticism within the Ateneo community, and the Dollhouse has since taken back this claim.

“You put in your article that ever since 1997, Dollhouse has been pushing for gay rights. We don’t do that because [first and foremost] we’re a barkada. Dollhouse will always be a barkada. It’s a bench—it’s not an organization. Why would we fight for what is not being taken from us?” Echon clarifies in a mix of English and Filipino. According to him, the Dollhouse is “more of a support group, not a political group.”

“There are a lot of factions, subgroups [in the LGBT community], and [people commenting on The GUIDON’s article] are saying that we do not really represent them,” Echon says. He concedes that it is indeed hard to represent all the groups in the Atenean LGBT community but that Dollhouse does have members who are not stereotypical cross-dressers.

Echon also says that being called the representative of the university’s LGBT community was not something that the Dollhouse set out for. It was what they were branded as, since they are “the most prominent gay group in the Ateneo.”

Despite Echon’s adamancy about not being political, Kevin Mizon, a development studies senior, insists that the very presence of the Dollhouse is already a political matter. Mizon was also the project head of Contradictions: Co-existing Sexualities, a forum that took place during last February’s LGBT Day during the School of Social Sciences Week.

Although the Dollhouse is not involved in the Sanggunian, Mizon argues that they are still political because of what they do. He says that using “gay lingo” and having their very theatrical, campy elections are spectacles that disrupt the everyday. “That itself is political because it has effects [on] people,” he says. “[They are] really influential. Their performance itself is already political. Their existence is already political, precisely because they are gays and they are marginalized.”

Mizon also says that the group has made a difference in how the Atenean community views LGBTs, saying that the “Dollhouse definitely contributed a lot, although not in an institutional setting.” Despite not being involved with the Sanggunian, the Dollhouse has helped spread awareness and give representation to certain factions of the Atenean LGBT community.

Mizon also mentions how difficult it will be to represent all subgroups of the Atenean LGBT community politically and institutionally. “There are a lot of different gays—it’s very diverse. If we want to really push for a strong front for the LGBT sector, we need to have a plurality of groups.” According to him, this will make it possible to represent and address the issues of the different factions of the LGBT community, which have varying interests and concerns.

Discussion before action

In today’s Philippine setting, members of the LGBT community are generally given more opportunities to be open about who they are, even though religion and prejudice are also present in society. Pride marches and forums are being held, anti-discrimination bills are being proposed and people are beginning to be more open-minded.

However, there is still a lot to be done to raise awareness and attain equality and proper political and institutional representation for the LGBT community. In the Philippines, both inside and outside the Ateneo, there is a lack of discourse about sexuality that slows down the LGBT movement.

For Mizon, a formal institutional representation of the LGBT community in the university is not impossible. He says that this can be addressed through the creation of spaces where different gay people with different experiences can come together and discuss the issues of and in the LGBT community. These discussions may be able to determine what concrete action must be taken.

Mizon says, “Dialogue and discourse. Then the revolution happens.”