To inform LGBTQIA community members of a town in northern Mindanao about SOGIESC basics, the local rainbow organization there – named LGBTQIA Community of Binuangan, Misamis Oriental – is hosting a four-part workshop.

Discrimination of LGBTQIA people continues to be reported in these parts of the Philippines, said Jacob Salvana, founding president of the LGBTQIA Community of Binuangan, Misamis Oriental. Meaning – arguably – this is “one of the most difficult issues (we continue to) face here.”

Based on the reports reaching them, there are LGBTQIA people there who get discriminated based on their gender expression (e.g. some of them are catcalled), while others are deprived of employment opportunities because of their gender identity.

Sadly, Salvana said, “the lack of LGBTQIA empowerment programs are apparent”, meaning “we are left to our own devices to confront hate.”

The SOGIESC workshops are intended to empower the local LGBTQIA community members by localizing still-largely Westernized SOGIESC (and LGBTQIA) concepts, thereby “making them self-assured when discussing this issue,” Salvana said. Hopefully, “they will be empowered to confidently face society (even through a small effort like this).”

Added Stephen Christian Quilacio of Outrage Magazine and Bahaghari Center for SOGIESC Research, Education and Advocacy, Inc. (Bahaghari Center), there is acknowledgment that LGBTQIA communities outside metropolitan areas are often neglected in mainstream discourses. “And yet – to be honest – not many activities are being developed to actually include them, thereby empowering them to raise issues very specific to them/their contexts.”

For Quilacio, therefore, “such projects that eye to – to start – inform the LGBTQIA people about basic concepts affecting them; and then inform them what they can do when facing issues thrown at them because of their SOGIESC are truly empowering.”

Bahaghari Center for SOGIE Research, Education and Advocacy, Inc. (Bahaghari Center) head Michael David dela Cruz Tan was cited by Amnesty International Philippines as a human rights defender whose work help bring changes to peoples’ lives, particularly via the establishment of Outrage Magazine, the only LGBTQIA publication in the Philippines.

Tan – who received “Art that Matters for Literature” – is joined by co-awardees Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender – Organization; Bro. Armin Luistro, FSC, Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender – Individual; and Lorenzo Miguel Relente, Young Outstanding Human Rights Defender.

These awards are part of “Ignite Awards for Human Rights”, given to human rights defenders in recognition of the impact their work bring in changing peoples’ lives through mobilization, activism, rights-based policy advocacy and art. First of its kind, it is Amnesty International Philippines’ top honor given to human rights defenders in the country.

According to Tan, getting the recognition is an honor, particularly as “it recognizes our work in highlighting the minority LGBTQIA community in the Philippines. But this also highlights that for as long as there are people whose voices are ignored/left out of conversations, those who are able to should take a stand and fight for them.”

In a statement, Butch Olano, Amnesty International Philippines section director said that “this season’s recipients come from varying human rights backgrounds, from press freedom and right to education to gender equality and SOGIESC rights, but they share one dedication, that is to fight for basic rights of Filipinos. They truly ignite the human rights cause, speaking up against injustices and exposing inequalities on behalf of those who, otherwise, will not be heard.”

Olano added: “Amnesty International Philippines strongly believes that our individual and collective power as a people working towards transforming and uplifting each other should be given due recognition and appreciation despite the political turmoil the country has been experiencing for a few years now. It is necessary to shine a spotlight on those individuals who continue to pave the way for collective action.”

The nominations for Ignite Awards 2020 was opened exactly a year ago (May 28), and it took the organization a year to finalize the nominations and vetting process together with its Selection Committee and Board of Judges chaired by Atty. Chel Diokno.

May 28 also marks Amnesty International’s 59th anniversary.

“When people lead in taking a stand for human rights especially in difficult situations, it emboldens many others in their struggles against injustice. Our Ignite Awardees’ commitment is all the more remarkable because of the alarming levels of repression and inequality that ordinary people are experiencing amid this pandemic. Throughout and certainly beyond the immediate crisis, these human rights defenders will continue to stand up on behalf of the most vulnerable in our society. Together, we will call on the government to ensure access to universal healthcare, housing and social security needed to survive the health and economic impacts of Covid-19, while ensuring that extraordinary restrictions on basic freedoms do not become the new normal,” Olano said.

Tan – who originated from Kidapawan City in Mindanao, southern Philippines – finished Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies) from the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. In 2007, he established Outrage Magazine, which – even now – remains as the only LGBTQIA publication in the Philippines.

Among others: In 2015, he wrote “Being LGBT in Asia: The Philippine Country Report” for UNDP and USAID to provide an overview on the situation of the LGBTQIA movement in the country, and where the movement is headed; and in 2018, he wrote a journalistic stylebook on LGBTQIA terminology to help media practitioners when providing coverage to the local LGBTQIA community.

Tan – also a winner for Best Investigative Report in 2006 from the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) – has continuously tried to highlight “inclusive development”. For instance, speaking at a 2019 conference on human rights and the Internet organized by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), he said that “there is a disconnect between what’s online and what’s happening on the ground. And this stresses one thing: The need to not solely rely on making it big digitally, but also go beyond the so-called ‘keyboard activism’.”

Along with Tan, this year’s awardees join 2018’s recipients: Sen. Leila De Lima, Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender-Individual; DAKILA Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism, Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender – Organization; Floyd Scott Tiogangco, Outstanding Young Human Rights Defender; and Cha Roque, Art that Matters for Film.

BANGKOK, THAILAND – That minority sectors even within already ‘minoritized’ communities should never be forgotten is something that “we should always, always remember,” said Aaron Bonete, associate editor of Outrage Magazine (the only LGBTQIA publication in the Philippines) and concurrent project officer of Bahaghari Center for SOGIE Research and Advocacy, Inc. (Bahaghari Center).

Bonete spoke during the #SayEnoughAsia Campaign Skillshop helmed by OXFAM as part of ENOUGH, a global campaign launched in 2016 to end violence against women and girls by changing “widely accepted and harmful social norms that too often justify violence against women and girls to ones that promote gender equality and non-violence.”

With feminism, for instance, Bonete said that “often neglected are the intersections of identities – e.g. a woman who is experiencing violence may also be a lesbian, or be an Indigenous Person, or be a person with disability, or be someone living with HIV, or be a sex worker, and so on. Identities do not exist in a vacuum; and yet the specific identities demand very particular responses, and so not seeing these layers of identities is detrimental to all developmental efforts.”

According to Gopika Bashi, Asia Campaigner of the ENOUGH campaign, there is a need to “put our politics into practice – as INGOs we need amplify and support feminist movements, not just through resourcing, but also through facilitating the sharing of knowledge and skills with activists and campaigners at the frontlines.”

The campaign, therefore, wants to “provide a safe and brave space for feminist activists and campaigners in Asia who are campaigning against gender-based violence in their own countries, to come together, learn and share.”

Asia is, of course, of particular interest to ENOUGH campaign.

According to the ENOUGH campaign, in Asia in particular, the “growing violence and impunity by the States, fueled by identity-based politics, are exacerbating social exclusion and gender inequality, eroding women’s rights in many Asian countries.” Add to this “religious extremism and authoritarianism (that) are growing in the region.” As a result, “we see human rights under attack, increasing threats of violence against women, and a constriction of the space for civil society, both local and international, to operate.”

It doesn’t help that “at the heart of this structural impunity around VAWG/GBV lies an ‘acceptability’, which is rooted in strongly held patriarchal norms by both state and non-state actors, that continue to justify this violence in all its forms. For decades, women’s rights and feminist movements have continuously worked at multiple levels to challenge this acceptability through using multiple innovative strategies.”

And here, Bonete stressed the need for “inclusive approaches.”

Bonete added “the seeming neglect to include men in discussions of feminism,” he said, adding that “women empowerment won’t happen if the approach is ‘men vs women’.”

With Bonete during the #SayEnoughAsia Campaign Skillshop was transgender woman Ms Disney Aguila, president of Pinoy Deaf Rainbow and concurrent project coordinator for PWD Affairs of Bahaghari Center. Like Bonete, Aguila emphasized that “the oft-repeated saying that ‘none of us is free until all of us is free’ remains valid. We have to be inclusive, otherwise, efforts won’t succeed but will only advance those who are not necessarily in need of them most.”