MANILA, Philippines — The proposed bill that would ban discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE) will not legalize necrophilia and pedophilia.
This is contrary to the suggestion of a resource person from religious group Coalition of Concerned Families during a House hearing on Wednesday that sexual orientation may also encompass necrophilia and pedophilia.
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Lawyer Lyndon Caña from the group said that the anti-discrimination bill, also known as the SOGIE Equality Bill, does not put a limit to sexual orientations as it uses the term “LGBTQ+”
The plus is there to denote other sexual orientations and gender identities not encompassed under the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) acronym.
“When will this end? When will the orientation end?” Caña said. “For example, if an old man is attracted to very young children, that’s sexual orientation. That’s pedophilia. So included din ba yan sa fundamental human right? How about those who are sexually attracted to the dead? Necrophilia.”
Unlike being gay, straight or bisexual, necrophilia and pedophilia are not sexual orientations. Both are considered as paraphilic disorders under the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Rep. Geraldine Roman (Bataan) was also enraged at the absurdity of the suggestion linking the LGBTQ+ community to pedophilia and necrophilia.
“How dare you! We are here in the House of Representatives, you will seriously think that we will legislate something that would allow necrophilia and pedophilia?” Roman said.
What is it actually about?
The SOGIE Equality Bill does not contain any language that would legalize necrophilia or pedophilia.
The proposed law has been pushed for decades in Congress to protect against SOGIE-based discrimination in the workplace, educational institutions, healthcare facilittes and public places, among others.
It does not grant special rights to the LGBTQ+ community, Roman said, but protects them from being discriminated against.
“Stop staying that these are special privileges. What is so special about the right to study? The right to work?” she said.
It is a hot button issue for religious groups who feel that their religious rights would be trampled on by the measure, which was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives in the previous Congress, only to be sat on by the Senate which was controlled by a conservative leadership.
But Roman, one of the authors of the bill, said that this is not the case.
“Nothing in this bill will stop you from thinking that I am a sinner or that I am an abomination in the eyes of the Lord,” said Roman, herself a transgender woman.
Why the need for a specific law on SOGIE?
A potential compromise floated by Lighthouse Bible Baptist Church Bishop Reuben Abante is for Congress to first pass a comprehensive anti-discrimination law which would prohibit all forms of discrimination, not just SOGIE-based discrimination.
But Roman, who also authored that measure, said there are attempts to remove language on SOGIE from the measure, thus leaving out the LGBTQ+ community without protection.
“Enough of saying that we have enough laws. We don’t have enough laws. To say that we have the Constitution is just a simplistic way of viewing things. We are here in Congress to craft enabling laws to protect marginalized sectors,” Roman said.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) also backed the immediate passage of the measure as it recorded several incidents of discrimination and other forms of abuse against the LGBTQ+ sector.
Being accused as a carrier of the new coronavirus and being excluded from the government’s cash aid program are just a few of the discriminatory acts against LGBTQ+ people reported to the CHR.
“The current laws that we have are not sufficient to protect our LGBTQ,” Twyla Rubin of the CHR’s Centers for Gender Equality & Women’s Human Rights said. “We need to acknowledge the marginalization of a community in order to better address their marginalization and discrimnation.”