Thirty-one year-old Jelay (not her real name), a trans woman from Zamboanga del Norte, southern Philippines, was sexually violated by her uncle when she was still a child. But when she raised this issue to family members, the community and then the law enforcers, she was not taken seriously; her experience oh-so-easily discredited, and this largely stemmed from her gender non-conformity.
According to Ging Cristobal of OutRight Action International – noting the experience of LGBTQIA people like Jelay – “the traumatizing nature of (LGBTQIA) domestic violence prolonged through an absence of culturally competent interventions, judicial recourse, legal aid and psychotherapy supports, points to its key role in underpinning a broader experience of social marginalization and stigmatization for (LGBTQIA) persons.”
This is what led to OutRight Action International and EnGendeRights Inc. to embark – starting March 2016 – on a project, “Enhancing Domestic Violence and Family Violence (DV/FV) Protections for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) People in the Philippines”. The intent was to address barriers to domestic and family violence protections by service providers by providing sensitive, appropriate and respectful intervention, service and support.
“(We wanted) to help members of the (LGBTQIA) community have access to inclusive, free medical, legal and mental health service from barangays that are considered the first responders when they experience violence, abuse and discrimination,” Cristobal said to Outrage Magazine.
VIOLENCE IN THE HEARTLAND
From 2010-2012, OutRight Action International partnered with organizations in the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to document experiences of violence among lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LBT) people in a five-country LBT Violence in Asia project.
“Our findings revealed that domestic violence — including from both family members and intimate partners — is consistently the most common form of violence experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in the Philippines,” Cristobal noted.
Many of those interviewed, including Jelay, highlighted the “haunting” nature of the sexual violence experienced… as a result of gender non-conformity.
This underscores the importance of designing strategies to “complement existing and emerging domestic violence intervention efforts,” Cristobal said; and this is where OutRight Action International and EnGendeRights Inc. entered the picture.
EMPOWERING THE GRASSROOTS
From March 2016 to 2018, for the first phase of the project, 187 barangay personnel have been trained from 72 barangays from the six districts of Quezon City (where the project was eventually started). Out of these, 65 trained trainers conducted echo trainings and 1,165 people were reached through the six district level community forums to mainstream LGBT DV/FV issues.
A DV/FV Protocol for LGBT services was also launched and disseminated; this explains procedures for case handling, obligations of barangays under Philippines national law on gender violence, and obligations under Quezon City’s Gender Fair Ordinance.
And because of the project, the first-ever barangay intake form for handling DV/FV complaints/reports was developed at the local level; for the first time, it encourages a complainant to comfortably signify one’s sexual orientation and preferred gender.
AN ONGOING CONCERN
The project already rolled out phase two, where the intention is to “continue to increase the awareness and skills of barangay officials and service providers in SOGIESC-sensitive interventions for domestic and family violence of LGBT people,” Cristobal said.
Other goals include: to continue to strengthen the knowledge and skills around SOGIESC-specific DV/FV of service providers, government officials and community leaders; improve the psychosocial support for trained service providers who are working with LGBTI victim-survivors of DV/FV; assist barangays to improve access of LGBTI people seeking help services related to DV and FV; develop strengthened legal protections and resource allocation for LGBT victims of violence; and eventually replicate the Quezon City LGBTI-inclusive barangay model to Muntinlupa City and other cities in the Philippines.
There remain ongoing/continuing challenges, Cristobal admitted.
For instance, barangays change their Gender and Development (GAD) and Violence Against Women (VAW) desk officers regularly.
But solutions have also been developed – i.e. in the above case, “we drafted the protocol on how to address DV/FV experienced by LGBTI persons so that the new barangay staff will be able to read, learn and apply SOGIE-sensitive intervention.” Now, too, the city GAD council will be the one to ensure that GAD and VAW service providers in barangays are and will always be LGBTI-inclusive.
Yet another issue is politicking, since “some barangay officials who are not supportive of the present mayor makes it hard for LGBTI and barangay staff to join the project.” To deal with this, “and while our project is supported by (current Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte), we do not discriminate who should join just as long as the LGBTI person, GAD and VAW desk officer is willing to provide quality service to LGBTI people in their community.”
Because in the end, the goal for service providers to serve all the people… meaning, including LGBTQIA people, too.
For cities and municipalities interested to replicate the LGBTI-inclusive barangay model, contact Ging Cristobal at gcristobal@outrightinternational.org or (+63 9175570405).
