MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 21, 2011) – Different lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations in Manila supported the worldwide commemoration of the Transgender Day of Remembrance as they continue to push the Aquino government to act on the spate of unsolved killings of transgenders in recent years.
The Society of Transexual Women of the Philippines led allied organizations and supporters in a candle lighting and poetry reading ceremony in Quezon City, where the names of 100 transexual victims of murders all over the world were read. At the same time, Bemz Benedito, the transgender chairwoman of the political party Ladlad led worshippers at the Metropolitan Community Church Quezon City in a mass dedicated to the memories of Filipino trans women and men whose killings remain unsolved and even unnoticed by the police.
In a statement, the Philippine LGBT Hate Crime Watch drew attention of the public and the government to the fact that many Filipino transgenders and those who were presumed as transgenders were murdered since 1996.
“Doubling the tragedy of the fact of their deaths is our government’s continuing inaction and apathy towards the appeals of the LGBT community to render attention in the form of investigations, prosecutions and punishment of perpertrators. To date, no one stands accused of inflicting crimes based on hate and bias towards LGBTs, and in some few cases of legal action, the incidents are treated as ordinary crimes,” said Reighben Labilles, the gay spokesperson of the alliance.
The militant LGBT group Kapisanan ng mga Baklang May Progresibong Oryentasyon or the KABARO group in the Polytechnic university of the Philippines scored the Aquino government’s dismal record in protecting the rights of transgenders.
Kennetch Evangelista, KABARO coordinator, said Aquino failed miserably in upholding international convenants on protecting LGBTs when it refused to support in December 2010 the U.N General Assembly Statement on the Extrajudicial Killings based on Sexual Orientation.
“Aquino not only violated us once but twice! He snubbed a U.N Human Rights Council Resolution Against Violence, Homophobia, and Transphobia in June,” Evangelista said.
Citing statistics from the Hate Crime Watch, Evangelista pointed out that from 10 anti-LGBT murders between 1996 and 2008 , the killing rate rose to twelve in 2009, and 26 in 2010, and 27 in the first half of 2011 under Aquino.
ProGay Philippines recently filed a report to the United Nations demanding that Aquino pass the Anti-Discrimination Bill (House Bill 1483) filed by Rep. Teddy Casino in Congress to help reduce the incidence of hate crimes and violence against transgenders.
This is the 13th time that activists marked the Transgender Day of Remembrance to memorialize those who were killed due to hatred or prejudice and to honor Rita Hester, who was killed on November 28, 1998 in San Francisco. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission focused its TDOR efforts in Latin America to campaign for full citizenship of trans people with advocacy initiatives targetting the Organization of the American States.
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