You can’t claim to love LGBTQ+ friends and have “buts” about it
“I have LGBTQ+ friends,” “I love the LGBTQ+ community.” These sentiments sound great and accepting—until they follow it with a “but.”
After Sen. Joel Villanueva remarked that the SOGIE Equality bill is “not a priority” for Senate when sessions resume in July, he defended his position, saying something the LGBTQ+ community hears all too often.
“I love the LGBT community. [I’m] super close to Paul Cabral, Boy Abunda, super proud hairdresser ko si Alex Carbonell for many many years! And for some individuals and other media outlets to continue painting me as anti-LGBT is more than preposterous,” the senator said.
Prior to the remark, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who refiled the SOGIE Equality Bill in the 19th Congress, called Villanueva out for not classifying the bill as urgent. She even compared this two-decades-old bill with the swiftly passed yet controversial Maharlika Investment Fund bill.
“Yung Maharlika bill nga na isang beses lang inihain sa Senado, na hindi naman kailangan sa ngayon, naipasa agad. Bakit yung SOGIE bill na napakatagal nang nandiyan hinaharangan?” she said.
The SOGIE Equality bill has been stalled in Congress as early as 2000 by lawmakers and religious sectors.
An old tweet from 2019 from Hontiveros still rings true. If you love your LGBT friends, accepting them is just the tip of the iceberg. If you love someone, you will support them.
View this post on Instagram
“If we really love them (LGBTQ+ friends), we’d fight that they enjoy the same rights as we do. We’d educate ourselves about their struggles. We’d use our straight privileges to dismantle an old system that oppresses them,” she wrote.
Love and support are more than lip service. LGBTQ+ Filipinos are still vulnerable to discrimination, bullying, and harassment. It’s great that some local governments all over the country—like Quezon City, Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Davao, and Zamboanga—already have anti-discrimination ordinances but an overall law that protects everyone, not just LGBTQ+ people, from being turned down and from hate because of their SOGIESC is still needed.
You can’t say you support someone but won’t let them enjoy the same rights and privileges you do. Just because you have LGBTQ+ people around you, doesn’t mean you can’t be guilty of homophobia or transphobia.
banner by: @stfuoliver_
The post <b>You can’t claim to love LGBTQ+ friends and have “buts” about it</b> appeared first on WE THE PVBLIC.
Source: we the pvblic
No comments