The Rainbow Blog Philippines

"The doctrine of the separation of the Church and State was not enunciated by a king or a president, or by a pope or a bishop, but by our Lord Jesus Himself. While our Lord was still in this world, there were those who wanted to show Him up as a false prophet, so they went to Him and asked whether they should pay the taxes demanded by the Roman government or not. Thereupon Jesus asked them to and Him a coin; upon receiving it, He asked them whose face was it that appeared on the coinl and they answered it was Caesar's. Jesus then said: "Render unto Caeser what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." [Matt 22:15-22, Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26] (President Manuel L. Quezon at the Luneta, Manila 17 July 1938) For even more analysis of this issue, visit Sampaloc Toc's Render onto Comelec blog .

Mga Tanong: Pwede bang ma-consider legally ang domestic partnership between gay couples ngayon sa Pilipinas? Up to what extent pwede marecognize ang partner ko? Anong gagawin mo if you are fired from work because you are gay? Anong gagawin mo kung nahuli ka sa isang bathouse, massage parlor or sinehan na gumagawa ng milagro? Pwede ba akong mag-adopt ng child if I am single and gay? Ano ba yung bagansya at paano ko mapo-protektahan ang sarili ko? Paano kung may nagkalat ng chismis na bakla ako or may HIV ako, anong laban ko sa mata ng batas at human rights? Ang Sagot: Rainbow Rights Project Inc., in coordination with Single Guys Online, Metropolitan Community Church QC, IFTAS, and GABAY, presents: “THE LGBT LEGAL FORUM” This event is on Saturday, 3pm, September 19, 2009 and will be held at Metropolitan Community Church Quezon City (MCCQC) LGBT Center, 56th Mindanao Avenue, Project 6, Quezon City. Please come and join us in discussing everything you need to know about Legal Rights for Le...

The High Court in Delhi ruled that the Indian penal code outlawing consensual sex between homosexual adults violates the right to life, privacy and dignity in the Indian Constitution. The Court cited the Yogyakarta Principles. The High Court in Delhi ruled that the Indian penal code outlawing consensual sex between homosexual adults violates the right to life, privacy and dignity in the Indian Constitution. The Court cited the Yogyakarta Principles. If you would like to read the historic 105 page judgment, it is available at the Times of India website . In addition to Indian case law, the Court's judgment cited numerous international treaties and other instruments as well as case law from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Nepal. The Yogyakarta principals were referred to as follows: Paragraph 43 (citation omitted): On 26th March, 2007, a group of human rights experts launched the Yogyakarta Principles on the A...

Book Review on American Communication Professor Robert Alan Brookey's book "Reinventing the Male Homosexual: The Rhetoric and Power of the Gay Gene". This post was written by RBP team member line of flight from Sampaloc Toc . Robert Alan Brookey is an American Professor of Communications at Arizona State University. He wrote Reinventing the Male Homosexual: The Rhetoric and Power of the Gay Gene . I was just beginning to blossom when LeVay came out with his theory of neuroendocrinological basis for heterosexual and homosexual difference and when Hamer came out with his theory of the gay gene. As an adolescent, the gay gene theory seemed to fit so perfectly into the idea that homosexuality is inborn and that I had no choice in the matter. Yet, as I went through college and graduate school, it became clear that the gay gene theory would not work. The consequences of it are highly problematic. Is there a gene that predisposes someone to watching May Bukas Pa or Wowowee ? D...

Book Review on American English Professor Michael Warner's book "The Trouble with Normal". This post was written by RBP team member line of flight from Sampaloc Toc . Michael Warner is a professor of English at Rutgers University. He is one of the founding thinkers in "queer theory" starting with his edited book Fear of a Queer Planet . When first published, The Trouble with Normal was seen as a response to Andrew Sullivan's book Virtually Normal and the move in sexual minority and dissident communities towards a stable LGBT identity community and same-sex marriage as the ultimate goal of such a community. Until the 1990s, the U.S. did not have a clear and stable notion of an LGBT community -- there were transgender communities, gay communities, lesbian communities and some overlap. This is still true about a global LGBT community. This unifying of different groups of people into an LGBT community produced a unified political agenda. For Warner, this polit...

Book Review on Canadian Sociology Professor Tina Fetner's 2008 book "How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism". This post was written by RBP team member line of flight from Sampaloc Toc . Tina Fetner is a sociology professor in Canada and identified herself as a "straight woman." She reviewed documents from both the religious right and gay and lesbian sources and made a simple claim. The modern American LGBT movement was primarily shaped by the forces of the religious right. The religious right had better organization and way more money to contribute to opposing LGBT claims -- at least, how they saw those claims. This ended up, in LGBT organzing terms, putting significant resources and time into responding to that opposition, even if the area of battle was not a priority for the LGBT movement. As has been discussed at length in other scholarship, until the religious right started organizing against the mild anti-discrimination laws the LGBT movem...

By fullman It's back to barracks, pink soldiers. Contrary to what you've been hearing from your generals and the media, there is no clear go-signal yet for LGBT soldiers in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. First, some clarifications. There is no official ban for LGBTs in the military , hence no ban was technically lifted when top military officials made positive statements about allowing LGBTs in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. That said, it must be stated as well that the AFP has no policy explicitly allowing LGBTs in the military .  So the question to ask is: ano ba talaga, mga papa ? We've been getting mixed and confusing statements from the military establishments. In several committee hearings in Congress for the Anti-Discrimination Bill filed by AKBAYAN , representatives from the AFP would always bring 'unofficial' position papers stating that lesbians and gays cannot be allowed to join the military. In one hearing, the reasons they provided were abs...

On Monday, 18 out of 24 Philippine Senators approved the Magna Carta of Women (Senate Bill or SB 2396) which seeks to empower all Filipinas and protect them against all forms of discrimination. It will still be tweaked in a "bicam" conference involving both upper and lower houses of Congress but it's already a done deal. So come March 8, Filipino women the world over will have more reason to celebrate International Women's Day. The passage of the Magna Carta, like the passage of the Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB) that seeks to penalize discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression and that of the Reproductive Health Bill, which gives parents the right to choose what type of family planning method they want, has been delayed by strong opposition of lobby groups for the Catholic church. Right-wing conservatives have criticized the bill's usage of the term "gender" which they claimed was a cover-up for LGBT rights. Allowing t...