Philippines Confronts Transgender Paradox
MARIA RESPONDO, Philippines — Angel Cabaluna dusted makeup onto her thighs, styled her hair in loose curls and applied smoky eye shadow that glittered on her lids.
As this hamlet of cornfields and concrete houses prepared for festivities honoring its patron saint, and as some people gathered in prayer, Ms. Cabaluna, 20, was primping to compete in an annual transgender beauty pageant. “This is our passion,” Ms. Cabaluna said.
Dominated by conservative morals taught by the Roman Catholic Church, the Philippines is also one of Southeast Asia’s most tolerant countries toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. And lawmakers are taking steps to ensure legal protections that would penalize discrimination against them.
At the pageant, children crowded close to the stage where the contestants spun and danced in red feather headdresses, gold brocade and tulle. The crowd laughed and cheered as they delivered speeches, weaving jokes with witty rhymes, beauty- queen platitudes and proclamations on gender equality.
About 80 percent of Filipinos are Roman Catholic, and the church’s teachings often dominate public life in the Philippines. Still, Ms. Cabaluna, who considers herself very religious, said: “L.G. B.T. are now accepted. We are very welcome.”
While there are no laws criminalizing homosexuality in the Philippines, there are no laws specifically protecting gay or transgender people, either. Geraldine Roman, the country’s first openly transgender member of Congress, is leading efforts to broaden legal protections.
For nearly 20 years, conservative politicians have thwarted anti- discrimination measures, arguing that they would infringe on people’s right to religious expression. But in September, a bill barring bias on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression passed the House of Representatives unanimously. Since then, the speaker of the House, Pantaleon Alvarez, introduced a civil partnership bill that seeks to give gay and transgender couples the same legal rights as married ones.
Ms. Cabaluna, an accounting student who was crowned queen of Maria Respondo, says that while she finds the pageants thrilling, she also sees them as a platform for advancing gender equality. At church, “we are allowed to wear girls’ clothes,” Ms. Cabaluna said. She has heard priests extol the same advice her mother told her: Regardless of your gender, what matters is being a good person before God and family.
Still, the tolerance hides deep veins of disapproval. The Reverend Renante Rabanes, who offered the Mass for St. Vincent, the hamlet’s patron saint, said: “Transgenders are against the church. They are destroying what God gave them.”
From 2008 to 2016, 41 transgender people were killed in the Philippines, according to the group Transgender Europe.
President Rodrigo Duterte said while campaigning in 2016 that he supported same-sex marriage. But Ms. Roman, who is a member of his party, has expressed frustration that the anti- discrimination bill has not received more backing from him.
In the Senate, the bill is being held up by bureaucratic maneuvers by Senator Joel Villanueva, an evangelical Christian. If it is not passed by the end of this Congress in 2019, it will effectively die.
However widely tolerance extends, people can still discriminate, as Roi Galfo found out. At the end of training at a call center, the human resources officer said that all employees must use bathrooms according to the gender they were born with. Ms. Galfo was the only transgender person in the room.
She filed a case against the call center under an anti-bias ordinance in Quezon City, where the company operated. A year and a half later, she is awaiting a decision. But she is turning the experience into a campaign for city office in Valenzuela, where she lives. The elections on May 14 may be a chance for her to turn acceptance into political power.
“I know I will be very much heard if I’m in the position,” Ms. Galfo said.