By Naomi Fontanos
Chairperson, GANDA Filipinas, Inc.
Many moons ago prior to colonization ‘genitally male’ people called #asog/bayoguin/binabayi lived as women and were accepted as such. They worked as #babaylan/catalonan/daetan/baliana and served as healers and priestesses of their communities.
Then the Spaniards came and called them witches/brujas and supplanted our multigender system with the gender binary. Throughout Philippine history, ‘third gender’ people have always existed known by other names mujeristas/bakla/bayot/bantut.
Philippine culture which used to embrace them became patriarchal, pushed them into the margins of society and oppressed them as it oppresses women. The modern day bakla who can be gay or transgender shares the bond of misogynistic oppression with the modern day Filipina woman.
This is why feminist and LGBTQIA+ movements MUST have solidarity with each other. They are fighting oppression based on gender, class, race, and colonization.
If you are a Filipino feminist and think that ‘gender affirming ideology’ meant to support trans people is something you cannot support, you are enacting oppression from a colonial standpoint. You are like our brutal colonizers who have not only committed violence against our people but also erased our history/herstory.
