The Rainbow Blog Philippines

In celebration of International Women's Day, STRAP is holding a Day With Rica Paras , the first transpinay on the hit reality TV show, Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) at the University of the Philippines Diliman Gender Office (UPDGO) this coming Thursday. See poster below. Hope to see you there!

Official Statement of the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP) on the recent happenings inside the Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) House involving Rica Paras “Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” --Anonymous She-man. Mumu (Ghost). Half-half. Samson and Delilah. These are just a few of the derogatory comments heard recently from PBB Double Up Housemates Rob Stumvol, Patrick Villanueva, Hermes Bautista, Mariel Sorino, Yuri Okawa and most especially Rocky Salumbides in referring to Rica Paras. We, her sisters in STRAP, join the rest of the world’s loyal audiences who watch PBB Double Up diligently in expressing our dismay, disappointment and disbelief in this blatant show of anti-transgender prejudice or transphobia . STRAP condem...

After almost a month on air, I was starting to get bored with Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) , the Philippines' version of the Endemol-produced hit reality TV show. This week, I only tuned in twice just to see how our STRAP girl, Rica Paras is doing so far. As the joke goes, according to Ate Vi (that's Vilma Santos for you, an actress turned politician who has a quirky way of speaking), so far so good so far. During Rica's first week, she was asked by Big Brother to pretend that she's the girl friend of the Filipino-Austrian housemate, Rob Stumvol. They were able to pull off the task pretty well. It even reached a point where Rica and Rob had to pretend that they were getting married with Rob proposing and all. It had the entire nation glued to their TV sets. So many people found the Rica-Rob pretend love team so cute, including me and the girls. This week I learned that the housemates are anticipating a swap where a housemate from the Philippines will be swapped with another...

10 October 2009 Dear Friends, Allies & Supporters, We, the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP), a transgender rights advocacy organization and support group for girls and women of transsexual experience, are very proud to announce that one of our very own, Ms Rica Paras, is now a Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) housemate. Housemate Rica, the Math Goddess of Bacolod (although she is really from Iloilo, entered the PBB house tonight, 10 October 2009, Saturday, and we believe that given the dearth of positive and empowering media images of transgender Filipinas or transpinays, her addition to the cast of PBB housemates marks a significant milestone both in the history of Philippine TV but as well as in the local transgender liberation movement. Rica is the first out and proud transpinay who will ever enter the PBB house and be watched by millions on national TV. This is perhaps just rightly so as Rica’s story, indeed, is one that needs to be told. Growing up in a lower mid...