UP Babaylan On Air

[From L to R: Nica (Co-host), Hender (Punong Babaylan), Athena (Executive Producer) and Harry (Co-Host)]

Last February 8 (Monday) 3PM, our current president Hender Gercio was featured as the guest speaker in the live radio program "Sabi Ko, Sabi Niya" that aired on DZUP 1602.

The theme of the show was about LGBT 101 and relating it to the Philippine scenario. Hender tackled LGBT terminology, media portrayal of LGBT people in the Philippines, and the continued struggle for equal rights of LGBT Filipinos.

DZUP is a radio station owned and operated by the University of the Philippines, Diliman. It broadcasts from the Media Center of the College of Mass Communication, UP Campus, in Quezon City. It is being used as a laboratory for the Broadcast Communication students of the university.

We hope that many (students and people from outside UP) were able to learn from the episode. Thank you DZUP for giving Pinoy LGBT youth the opportunity to reach out to a wider audience. Here's to the next media guesting!

Babaylan at Kapihan

by Mae Emmanuel Hernandez

  

Indeed, LGBT rights are human rights. UP Babaylan, the premier LGBT student support organization, was invited to participate in Kapihan on Human Rights at the Ateneo Professional Schools in Rockwell Center, Makati City last January 12. The event was organized by the Philippine Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism. It is a two-part forum series that focuses on human rights issues that affect each sector of the society. The Kapihan was the first of the forum series.

The objective of the event was to convene all sectors of the society and discuss every sector’s issues and concerns. These were integrated and documented as a civil society input to be presented at the second part of the forum series. The second forum will invite the presidential hopefuls and the participants of the Kapihan to further discuss the issues.

 As one of the participants, I was able to share some ideas and concerns that I seemed necessary and needed urgent attention. I was also given the opportunity to present it to the entire forum. Below is the summary of the pertinent issues that we came up for the LGBT sector:

General Issues
- Discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation;

- Violence (hate crimes)

- Homophobic and Transphobic society

- Non-recognition of rights (marginalized groups)

- Education and awareness

Prioritized Issues
- the passage of Anti-Discrimination Bill

- adoption of the Yogyakarta Principles

Present Situation
-  COMELEC rejected Ang Ladlad as party-list rep.

- pending bills that are anti-LGBT

- masculinity/femininity test in schools

- court cases on transgender issues

Recommendations
- LGBT sensitivity training for all LGUs/gov’t. agencies

- inclusion of LGBT topics in existing modules/mechanism

- more legal actions/legislative measures

- passage of ADB

- mainstreaming of Yogyakarta principles

- employment opportunities for LGBT people in media

 

 

 

The Kapihan forum opens doors for all the marginalized sectors of the society to air their views and needs and to recognize their rights as citizens. Being the LGBT community, it is our duty to fight for what is for us and to fight for the life we truly deserve. Thus, it is the government’s responsibility that all rights of human beings, regardless of gender identity and sexual orientation, are ensured and protected.

RED is the color of RAGE - LANTERN PARADE 2009

RED is the color of RAGE

We, the UP Babaylan, now parade in RED.

Pula na kulay ng dugong nananalaytay sa ugat ng bawat tao. Ito rin ang kulay ng dugong naghihimagsik sa galit dahil sa panghuhusga ng COMELEC sa aming mga bakla, lesbyana, bisexual at transgender.

Red is love that knows no color, no sex, no creed. Ours is a brave kind of love. No amount of persecution can stop our hearts from loving. Our love is not different. It is the same love that binds us and makes us understand.

Red is the spirit of Christmas. The spirit that celebrates the noblest of love.

Wear Red and be Red. We will never be silenced.

Rage against the homophobia and total disrespect to human rights.

Pride March 2009 - We DARE, We CARE!

The theme of this year’s Pride Parade is “We Dare. We Care” to signify the LGBT community’s proactive stance in addressing the human rights problems affecting their sector.

Hender, the current Punong Babaylan, speaking on behalf of the organization during the post-parade ceremony

Forget Us Not: TDOR Week in UP

by Mae Emmanuel Hernandez

As part of the worldwide commemoration of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP) and UP Babaylan organized the TDOR week in UP Diliman. Several activities were lined-up for the whole week to remember and memorialize transgender people whose lives were lost due to anti-transgender hate or prejudice, otherwise known as transphobia.

On November 24, an exhibit of the dead at Palma Hall lobby was opened to the public to spread awareness about TDOR. The event was attended by members of both organizations, STRAP and UP Babaylan, and other invited guests. The exhibit displayed reported cases of transgender people that were killed over the past year. These cases are posted on the transgenderdor.org website.

 

 

 

 

On its last day, November 27, a forum entitled “TRANSCEND: Stories and struggles of Transpeople in the Philippines” was held at the UP Diliman Gender Office  It was attended by all the members, students, faculty and LGBT leaders of different groups and organizations. Hender Gercio, President of UP Babaylan and Gia Alessandra Nolasco, Membership Coordinator of STRAP served as speakers for the forum. It discussed the sensitive topics about transgenderism and also the prevailing issues that transgender people are facing nowadays.

 

After the forum, a candle-lighting ceremony was done at the Palma Hall steps to honor and commemorate those transgender people who were killed due to transphobia. Each member and guest read a story of the departed and afterwards lighted a candle to signify the life of the transgender person killed due to anti-transgender hate. To cap off the activity, a moment of silence was offered to the victims.

 

 

 

 

 

The Transgender Day of Remembrance reminds us that we, as human beings, must value life regardless of whatever background, beliefs, origin that we may have. It also tells us that giving respect to life is the very core of being human. And it is by giving respect that makes the world a better place to live in.