Mahigit dalawang dekada nang pending ang SOGIE Equality Bill, pero bakit hanggang ngayon hindi pa rin ito umuusad?
Habang hinihintay natin and progreso nito, here is something to refresh your mind about what the bill is all about.
Here’s what you #NeedToKnow!
Habang hinihintay natin and progreso nito, here is something to refresh your mind about what the bill is all about.
Here’s what you #NeedToKnow!
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NewsTranscript
00:00Do you know that even if you're straight, you're still protected by the SOGIE Quality Bill if it becomes law?
00:08The Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, or Expression, or SOGIE Quality Bill has been pending for more than 24 years.
00:16In fact, it is considered the longest-running bill in the Philippines.
00:21What is the SOGIE Quality Bill?
00:24Why does it take so long?
00:27And is it really extra important?
00:30Here's what you need to know.
00:35People fear what they do not understand.
00:38Because of the fake news or the misconceptions against the SOGIE Quality Bill,
00:43some people may have reservations about it, even if these reservations are actually addressed already.
00:51In the long years that we've been debating the SOGIE Quality Bill, I believe these are already addressed.
01:00To better understand the SOGIE Quality Bill, we need to understand what the SOGIE is.
01:08Do you know that we all have SOGIE?
01:11Or Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression?
01:16Let me break it down for you.
01:18Break it down!
01:20Sexual Orientation is your emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction to another person.
01:27Gender Identity is your personal concept or sense of your personality or gender.
01:33This is how you perceive yourself.
01:35Your Gender Identity may be different or similar to your sex assigned at birth.
01:42Gender Expression is how you express yourself.
01:47This can be done through clothing, behavior, and others.
01:50Just like wearing a skirt or pants, using makeup, cutting hair or big perms, and many more.
01:59Manifesting? Yes!
02:00This is how you publicly or externally manifest your gender.
02:05When it comes to the versions of the SOGIE Quality Bill in the 19th Congress,
02:10we saw that sex characteristics has been added in the attributes that are protected.
02:18For us, as advocates, we know that sex characteristics are part of the discussion of our legislation.
02:26But technically speaking, we wanted to add it in the proposed legislation
02:30so that our legislation can be more emphasized.
02:35We want to talk about this legislation based on our identity,
02:40how we are known, how we are attracted, how we like each other,
02:47and what is our assigned sex at birth when we were born.
02:53The earliest version of the SOGIE Quality Bill was filed by former Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago
03:00and former Akbayan Representative Loretta Rosales in 2000.
03:05Fast forward to 2019, it was refiled by Senator Risa Ontiveros and she has been pushing to pass it ever since.
03:12I asked you if you were okay in the mall. You said, why?
03:16The same year, trans woman Gretchen Custodio-Diaz was arrested for using a female restroom in a mall in Cubao.
03:24Since then, there was a call for an anti-discrimination bill.
03:30In fact, based on a survey of social weather stations in 2019,
03:3560% of Filipinos agreed that the LGBTQIA plus community is experiencing discrimination.
03:44On the other hand, 47% did not support transgender people using female restrooms.
03:52When it comes to the SOGIE Quality Bill, of course we know that it is an anti-discrimination bill, right?
03:57That protects all Filipinos from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation,
04:03gender identity, and gender expression.
04:06Or SOGIE, or basically kasariyan.
04:09In the latest version of the Senate bill,
04:12the SOGIE Quality Bill aims to punish discriminatory practices based on a person's SOGIE SE.
04:19If the SOGIE Quality Bill is in effect,
04:21the Senate panel recommends a fine of P100,000 to P250,000 for its violations or imprisonment for up to 6 years.
04:32Individuals who refuse to provide medical and health services to a person based on their SOGIE SE
04:39may be fined P100,000 to P300,000 or imprisoned for 6 months to 2 years and 4 months.
04:48There are chairpersons of the anti-LGBT committee.
04:53It is because of these very few people who hold positions of power that makes the bill harder to pass.
05:01However, we believe, and history can tell us this,
05:05that more legislators actually support the bill.
05:10If we count, I believe that the SOGIE Equality Bill will win.
05:14We just need to give equality a chance in the plenary.
05:18Not gonna lie, but there are a lot of misconceptions about the SOGIE Equality Bill.
05:24That's why it's not easy to make people understand it, and there are still a lot of alarms here.
05:29Number one, it is against religious rights.
05:34The SOGIE Equality Bill does not protect the rights of all people, including their religious freedom.
05:42It does not protect our right to practice and choose our religion.
05:50There are also religions that support acceptance and love, and I think the core of every religion is love.
05:57Number two, it's not marriage equality.
06:01Of course, because if you want a marriage equality bill, you really have to have a separate bill for that.
06:08The SOGIE Equality Bill is not that.
06:10It's a simple anti-discrimination bill that protects all of us from discrimination.
06:15It's not against parental authority.
06:17In fact, I would believe the SOGIE Equality Bill improves families.
06:22It strengthens the family, the very foundation of our society, because it creates loving and kind parents.
06:31It creates more accepting parents where they will accept their children more if there is a SOGIE Equality Bill.
06:40Lastly, there is also the myth that the SOGIE Equality Bill is against academic freedom.
06:47The right of schools to choose or set standards when it comes to their students, when it comes to the educational qualifications of their students is not lost.
07:04After more than two decades, has the SOGIE Equality Bill been approved?
07:09It's already sponsored in the plenary in the House of Representatives.
07:13And in the Senate, it's pending in the Committee on Rules.
07:18So we're still waiting for it to be sponsored again in the plenary.
07:23The next few months will be crucial in our fight for equality.
07:28We have less than a year before the 19th Congress ends.
07:31Otherwise, our SOGIE Equality Bill will return to square one.
07:38That's also the same with many other progressive bills that we're pushing for.
07:42And we're very hopeful because we believe the stars are aligning.
07:47We see more and more people supporting LGBTIQ plus inclusion.
07:53We see that in the increase in public attendance in pride events all around the country.
08:00Why is it important to pass the SOGIE Equality Bill? And what can we expect if we pass it?
08:06Let's imagine that families are happier when there's equality.
08:11Children are happier when they maximize their full potential in school.
08:18Parents are happier when they're not discriminated against in their work.
08:26And they're free to contribute to society and support their families.
08:31And of course, families are happier when we all receive basic government services or public services.
08:40So that we can help ourselves, our families, and of course, our country.
08:46When it comes to LGBTQIA+, the Philippines ranks higher than many other countries.
08:54According to a report published in 2021, the Philippines ranks 36th out of 175 nations when it comes to accepting the LGBTQIA plus community.
09:07But despite this, a bill that will protect them in our country is still pending.
09:15When it comes to LGBT rights, because of these Filipino values that are inherent to us,
09:21we have come a long way already.
09:24We have passed several legislations that are somehow helpful to the community.
09:30The Safe Spaces Act is one.
09:32It ensures that our public spaces are safe spaces from us against sexual harassment.
09:39And that includes homophobic and transphobic slurs.
09:43There's also the Deaf and Child Protection Policy that protects all children in schools,
09:48regardless of their gender.
09:50Yes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression are included in the protective attributes of the Deaf and Child Protection Policy.
09:57There are so many more, right?
09:59However, these are laws that have yet to recognize that, number one, discrimination exists and are detrimental to Filipinos,
10:08especially if they're discriminated on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression or kasariyan.
10:19The Soji Equality Bill may not be the answer to all LGBTQIA plus concerns,
10:26but it will push people to be better, kinder, and more loving to one another.
10:31LGBTQIA plus Filipinos are also Filipinos,
10:35and they should not be treated as second-class citizens in our country.
10:40For discrimination, we are!
10:48Thank you for watching!