YOU say that you have no problem with lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals (LGBT). You even claim that you have LGBT friends and you love them. But you oppose the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (Sogie) Equality bill.
Perhaps it hasn’t crossed your mind, but allow me to inform you of the things that you actually tolerate because you oppose the Sogie bill.
You agree that the LGBT, which include your friends, can be denied access to public services, including military service, simply because of who they are.
You do not have any problem if sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, as well as the disclosure of sexual orientation, becomes part of the criteria for hiring, promotion, transfer, designation, work assignment, reassignment, dismissal of workers, and other human resource movement and actions, performance review; and in the determination of employee compensation, access to career development opportunities, training and other learning and development interventions, incentives, privileges, benefits or allowances, and other terms and conditions of employment.
You support educational or training institutions refusing admission or expelling a person on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. In addition, you also support discriminating against a student or trainee due to the sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of the student’s parents or guardians. You also do not oppose the imposition of disciplinary sanctions and penalties that are harsher than customary or similar punishments, requirements, restrictions or prohibitions that infringe on the rights of the students because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or that of his or her parents or guardians.
You do not have a problem if a group or organization is refused accreditation, formal recognition or registration, or if such would be revoked solely on the basis of the sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of their members of their target constituencies.
You support denying your LGBT friends access to public or private medical and other health services open to the general public on the basis of their being LGBT. Moreover, you have no problem if your LGBT friends are denied their application for a professional or other similar kind of license, clearance, certification, or any other similar document issued by the government, or if such could be revoked simply because they are members of the LGBT.
You will also advise your LGBT friends to just accept it if they are denied access to or the use of establishments, facilities, utilities, or services, including housing, open to the general public on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
It is perfectly acceptable for you if your LGBT friends will be subjected or forced to undertake any medical or psychological examination to determine or alter, or both, their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression without their consent. You also have no problem if your LGBT friends will be harassed, coerced or threatened by members of institutions involved in the enforcement of law and the protection of rights such as the police, and the quasi-judicial and judicial bodies.
You approve of your discreet LGBT friends being outed maliciously, without their consent, and primarily motivated by a desire for commercial profit.
You tolerate people who engage in public speech meant to shame, insult, vilify, or which tends to incite or normalize the commission of discriminatory practices against the LGBTs, and which acts or practices in turn intimidate them or result in the loss of their self-esteem. You have no problem if your LGBT friends are subjected to harassment, which may be conducted through any form or medium, and which could include acts that tend to annoy, insult, bully, demean, offend, threaten, intimidate, alarm or create a hostile or distressing environment, or put them in fear of their safety simply because they are LGBT.
It is perfectly acceptable for you to subject your LGBT friends, particularly those who have not publicly disclosed their identities, to gender profiling or to any investigatory activities. This includes the conduct of unnecessary, unjustified, illegal or degrading searches to determine whether they are engaged in an activity presumed to be unlawful, immoral or socially unacceptable, or of recording and analyzing their psychological and behavioral characteristics to make generalizations about their sexuality.
Finally, you tolerate children manifesting early tendencies of being LGBT to be threatened with or subjected to actual bodily harm, or to suffer mental distress through intimidation, harassment, public ridicule or humiliation, or repeated verbal abuse.
If you truly have no problem with the LGBT, why would you tacitly support these acts? These acts are precisely those that the Sogie bill, which you oppose, would seek to outlaw and penalize.
You cannot say you accept the LGBT and then oppose the Sogie bill. When you say you have no problem with the LGBT, and then follow it with a “but,” then you are in denial. You have a problem. You rationalize because deep in your heart you know that you are prejudiced. You even use religion as your excuse with your preposterous claim that the Sogie bill will prevent you from exercising your faith. You claim to be straight. So how can the Sogie bill deny you the free exercise of your religion? What kind of religion would be violated just because you would fight for the rights of a cohort of people against discrimination?
Acceptance of the LGBT is easier said. But it will remain hollow unless you accept that sexuality is a continuum, that being LGBT is not a disease that could be cured, or a sin that can just be exorcised or prayed over with. You have to realize that your LGBT friends and people like them do not just need acceptance or tolerance, but are entitled to rights which the Sogie bill, which you oppose, vows to protect and ensure.
https://www.manilatimes.net/if-you-oppose-the-sogie-bill/604852/
No comments:
Post a Comment