Pushing for the inclusion of transgender and non-binary people’s participation in sports, the UP Tacloban Student Council and Bahaghari – UP Tacloban Chapter filed a position paper to the Office of the Student Affairs (OSA) to allow the participation of trans and non-binary UP Tacloban students in sports of their preferred category at the upcoming 38th Regional SCUAA Games.
The OSA spearheads the college-wide initiative, which will run from December 9-13.
The position paper noted the “lack of adequate spaces and guidelines that officially allow trans and non-binary athletes to participate in sports of their preferred category,” adding that the this ambiguity is “continuously used to disregard and outright exclude our LBTQIA+ athletes.”
As such, “as UP students, we stand strong in demanding systemic reforms that safeguard our basic human rights.”
The position paper added that recognizing the “patriarchal and macho-feudal roots that have taken hold of our education, culture, and beliefs, we begin to recognize the strict implementation of a binary categorization of gender as the primary way to control our bodies and our autonomy. By recognizing that gender is not biological and that the incredible variations of human biology that exist beyond the male and female sex cannot be conveniently categorized into a binary categorization, we dismantle the preconceived notions of gender.”
