The Hell-bent Struggle for Acceptance: A Do-or-Die Game
By: Timothy James P. Sampang
Tags: Homosexuality, Discrimination, Homophobia, LGBT Rights, Equality

The early cultivation of good virtues that everyone should embody they say, started as early as kindergarten. The smell of sugarcoated words incorporated to us cannot even hide the vicious intentions and tumultuous behaviors some still choose up to now. With the further rise of homophobia, does this make us formulate and conclude that the years we took on the struggle for acceptance futile?

Values Education inculcates distinct demeanors which makes us humane. However, our abhorrent history of dehumanization of the members of LGBTQIA+ Community says otherwise. This stretches back from our flawed mindset that the world only knows two genders and sexual orientation — man and woman instituted by our superstitious forefathers. Aside from this, the discrimination is deeply-rooted from the beliefs of Christians and Muslims that constitute the opposition of homosexual acts.

In the system in which we partake, homosexuals are often barred from their rights to a proper education. The blatant disrespect on the community a school in Iloilo City, Philippines had inflicted when it banned homosexual acts raised criticisms upon them. These condemnations could actually be justified due to Section 1 Article 14 of the 1986 Freedom Constitution saying that the State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all. The provision was as crystal as a distilled water yet favoritism and gender-based discrimination is still a hegemony.

The lack of pleasant space for homosexuals and transgenders in public comfort rooms might be a minuscule thing for others but it is a controversial topic for non-straight individuals. This issue had been raised by Gretchen Diez, a transgender woman who experienced discrimination herself from entering a women’s washroom which was later spliced to the inept acceptance for the community. Splintered and diverse opinions were heard yet one thing was clear — the Philippine legislators had no interest in being the catalyst for change.

The way we predicate and presume a child’s gender and isolate them into the false dichotomy between man and woman or simply, heterosexual is becoming a problem for the modern youth. Eventually, this leads to the formulation of the term closet which means that the person still hides their sexual orientation outside of the callous norm. The system which drives people to further burrow their true identity makes every step of the way similar to treading a series of broken glass.

Throughout the years of struggle, the non-straight community had been hindered from coveting justice against the hands of oppressors. Take Jennifer Laude’s case as a perfect example. She was mercilessly murdered by the butcher Joseph Scott Pemberton, a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. 6 years after the vague process of progress on the case, the Duterte administration pardoned its fellow criminal and murderer instead of sentencing him into being thrown on the blackest pit. Not only it is disrespectful, but a mockery to the LGBTQIA+ community and to the moral ethics we have established. The debauchery was a manifestation of the continuous trampling of the community’s human rights.

The society inflicting a series of sham showing that they have accepted that there’s more to heterosexuality should be lambasted with shreds of evidence that injustice and inequality are still relevant.

The hell-bent struggle for fair rights among heterosexuals, bisexuals, homosexuals, and transgender shows that the dissent against the broken system yields. With the rise in numbers of people who distinguish themselves as a part of the LGBTQIA+ Community, the memories of the aghast treatment for our brothers and sisters would serve as a lesson in the future and remain in the burrows of a history book.