The Wheel and Axle

Photo courtesy of Lagablab

Despite having been scheduled for interpellation numerous times, the Anti-Discrimination Bill still remains pending in the legislative.

And why is this so?

Certain members of the Senate have deliberately caused the delays.

One particular senator, in fact, has even had the gall to proclaim that he is an ally of the LGBT community. He used us for PR by posting on his Facebook, during Pride Month, that he supported us. And yet, to this very day, every time the bill is scheduled for interpellation, he leaves and/or disappears. The most recent one, I’m told, is that he disappeared but was discovered to have just been in the lounge. Such a blatant display of abuse of power is disgusting.

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Yesterday, being a member of Babaylanes, Inc. (the alumni organization of UP Babaylan), I joined a meeting of various LGBT groups and allies. A number of these groups were part of the umbrella LGBT network Lagablab, including my two aforementioned orgs, although there were also plenty of representatives from non-Lagablab groups. There were also non-affiliated individuals. We all had one goal.

The meeting was held as a forum on what we as a community can further do to lobby support for the Anti-Discrimination Bill. As I’d previously noted, this important piece of legislation has been in congress for some time now, and the most recent version is the furthest the bill has made it so far. Of course, this being Philippine politics and all, interpellations kept on getting delayed and delayed until Congress went on hiatus in March.

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Yesterday, I joined a panel of bloggers and social media personalities in a Facebook Live broadcast of Senator Risa Hontiveros. Facilitated by Peruvian-Asian gay celebrity Sebastian Castro and supported by Atty. Jazzy Tamayo of Rainbow Rights, the “Bekitaktakan” was centered around the Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB), a piece of legislation that would provide protection for a very vulnerable segment of Philippine society: the LGBT community.

The ADB has been languishing in legislation limbo for almost two decades – or at least, the ADB in various forms. The current version is the one that has made it the farthest so far, with a couple of interpellations left after congress went on recess earlier this week. (I shan’t comment further as to the reasons why it got delayed again lest I start throwing large, electrically-live appliances around the room in frustration.)

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