24 F E A T U R E S
Rey Valmores-Salinas is the National Spokesperson of Bahaghari, a National Democratic Alliance of Militant and anti-imperialist mass organizations, communities, and unions of the LGBTQ+ in the Philippines. The organization took inspiration from the murder of Jennifer Laude, a transwoman who was killed by a US marine. The socio-political situation provoked the activists' desire to fight against transphobia, homophobia, and imperialism. Aside from being a full-time LGBTQIA+ activist, Ms. Rey graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines Diliman and is currently working in the Ateneo School of medicine and public health, wherein she is the youngest member of the team. She is a transwoman and a full-time political organizer who continue to fight for women and LGBTQIA+ rights. Ms. Rey is part of the PRIDE 20 who were illegally arrested during their march for Pride month and Anti-Terrorism Bill.
1. What made you choose this path of representing the LGBTQ+ community and fighting for your rights and freedom? As a transgender woman, I understand that my very existence is political. Growing up, I experienced persistent bullying and alienation at school from peers and severe physical and emotional violence at home from my family. It was when I joined Bahaghari that I dared to fight so that no other queer child would have to go through the things I did and to help build a world where everyone’s potential is fully and entirely realized— regardless of gender.
2. How important is it to have a national democratic LGBTQIA+ Organization? How is it different from other LGBTQIA+ organizations? National democratic organizations, at the fundamental level, seek to address the 3 root problems in Philippine society, namely: (1) feudalism; (2) bureaucrat-capitalism; and (3) imperialism. What is unique about Bahaghari is that our analysis of the LGBTQ+ struggle always takes these, and the rest of the material conditions of the Philippines, into account. What exactly are these 3 problems, and why are they related to our struggle as LGBTQ+? Feudalism, a system where there is a ruling minority of lords, and a vast majority of oppressed serfs, is deeply reminiscent of what we see in the countryside, except in the Philippines, we have hacienderos and peasants. It is also in a feudal system where patriarchy is ingrained, a backward culture that has concrete consequences of not only the erasure of our diverse identities as LGBTQ+ in lieu of a strict gender binary but also of institutionalized violence that kills the LGBTQ+ every day. Bureaucrat-capitalism is essentially turning politics into business. Everything is privatized: from healthcare to education, to basic utilities. Why is this relevant for the LGBTQ+? Because a concrete consequence of this is how legislators railroad policies that ensure their pockets get filled, and completely deprioritize laws such as the SOGIE Equality Bill, which they completely disregard and tag as irrelevant or even heinous (which goes back to the patriarchal and exclusionary culture borne out of feudalism as well). Imperialism is the final stage of capitalism, in which superpower nations begin to intervene with other, smaller countries politically, economically, culturally, and militarily. Imperialism is why the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States was created, and why consequently, hundreds of US soldiers are still on Philippine soil. Joseph Scott Pemberton was simply one of the many US marines docked in the Philippines. He murdered our trans woman sister Jennifer Laude and invoked the VFA to muscle himself into a protected facility at Camp Aguinaldo where only Americans and select Philippine officials may enter. Ultimately, he was granted absolute pardon by President Duterte, who saw to it to kneel to US interests and set Pemberton free. LGBTQ+ organizations must espouse a political line that encompasses these 3 root problems if we are to create meaningful liberation for all members of the LGBTQ+. Furthermore, it is also necessary for the LGBTQ+ to assert and embed ourselves in the mass movement; who else would stand for a culture that truly accepts and values the diversity of humanity's sexual orientations, gender identities, expressions, and sexual characteristics, but the LGBTQ+? In other words, we have a critical role in the cultural revolution.
3. What particular missteps of the LGBTQIA+ members do you find most problematic? How should we correct it? The most immediate misstep that comes to mind is the reduction of our community’s problems to identity politics. It is not enough that we have LGBTQ+ persons in positions of power; we must liberate every single member of the LGBTQ+, from all walks of life. This includes farmers, workers, national minorities, and all other oppressed sectors in which we can find members of our community. Another, related issue is sectoralism. It is restricting one’s activism to the sector one belongs to. While it is critical that we address discrimination and all other LGBTQ+-specific issues, it is also important for us to recognize that we do not possess a rainbow shield that renders us immune from all other struggles faced by the rest of society. The LGBTQ+ also go hungry from food insecurity. The LGBTQ+ also suffer from the lack of mass testing, contact tracing, and isolation, which has dragged out the COVID-19 pandemic for so long in the country. The LGBTQ+ also fall prey to state fascism, to the longest and harshest military lockdown of the world, and to the de facto Martial Law imposed by Duterte’s administration today.
ADRIAN
4. What is the current situation of the LGBTQIA+ community under the Duterte Administration? At the very beginning, Duterte has expressed support for Anti-Discrimination legislation, and yet even 4 years into his regime, we have seen no real progress for the SOGIE Equality Bill. Filipinos, including the LGBTQ+, have sunk deeper and deeper into poverty. In fact, during the lockdown where about 45% of the workforce is now unemployed, many of those hit the hardest are the LGBTQ+, from LGBTQ+ workers in the BPO industry and more who experienced mass layoffs, LGBTQ+ parlorists who are either unemployed or underemployed, even our drag queens who have lost a massive chunk of their spaces for performance. In the early stages of Duterte’s regime, among the victims of the War on Drugs are members of the LGBTQ+. This continues into Duterte’s imposition of Executive Order 70, which has led to the state-sponsored killing of Ryan Hubilla, a 22-year-old LGBTQ+ activist and high school student in Sorsogon. In the advent of COVID-19, where Duterte eagerly pushed a military lockdown, we have seen countless human rights violations by state forces against the LGBTQ+. In Pandacaqui,
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