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By Tino Largado LoveYourself Inc. continues its celebration of Pride Month with two new installments of Usapang ATBPride , shining light on the different rays of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Ally, and more (LGBTQIA+) spectrum. This week, we took the viewers on a peek of different issues affecting bisexuals, pansexuals, and the transgender community. Episode 3, “Love EveryJUAN, Love Everyone” aired on June 16th, 2020, and featured bisexual and pansexual individuals in a virtual discussion hosted by entrepreneur Ann Rodrigues, and joined by writer, sex educator, Now Open community co-founder and Burlesque PH performer, Trisha O'Bannon (sex educator, writer, co-founder of Brlesque PH, and a performer), CASTRO Communications PR Director Janlee Dungca, and bartender Cholo Mall. The hour centered on breaking stereotypes on bisexuals and pansexuals by acknowledging their similarities, and telling apart the differences: mainly that pans...

By Carlos Diego A. Rozul Since the June 1969 Stonewall Riot in Manhattan New York, liberation of the gay  community accelerated not only in the United States, but globally as well. In the Philippines, there have been numerous efforts in repairing the erasure of the  LGBTQIA+ community from centuries of colonial occupation. From representation in the media to legislation, pillars of the community have paved the way for the diversity and inclusion we experience now. This June, LoveYourself launches its LGBT Pride Month Campaign ATBPride (At Iba Pride), a play on the Filipino abbreviation for etcetera. While we take pride in one's otherness as something special we come together as a community with kindness and mindful intentions. This includes listening to each other's narratives and being open to learn about the diversity of people's experiences. Usapang ATBPride  aims to engage the community at large in learning more about the experiences of selected people who i...

By Carlos Diego A. Rozul Women’s month is not only a celebration, but it’s also a time to augment the empowerment of all women. Intersectional feminism reminds us to be cognizant of the different factors that affect gender equality. These factors include ethnicity, age, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and physical/mental ability among others. As we recognize the essential part of women in building today’s society, let us take a look at how femininity has been a part of select women’s lives. Transgender Health Officers of LoveYourself Inc., Jesse Castelo, Eda Catabas, and Yanyan Arana (L-R) Eda Catabas and Jesse Castelo are some of the newest Trans Health Officers of LoveYourself Inc. As trans women themselves, they feel right at home in their new role. Together with their teammates, they are partnering up with Decent Image of South Signal Association (DIOSSA) for an event to celebrate Women’s Month. Femininity is very important for me because I gr...

By Yuki Asato and Carlos Diego A. Rozul In the 1980s, women in the Philippines had a pivotal turn in society. Countless women joined in the movement to make the Philippines a more inclusive country among the many rallies against the administration at the time. Before the women's movement, queer women felt ignored. Lesbian concerns were being tucked under women's and feminist studies, which were heterosexual in nature at the time. Even during the gay movement, lesbian women were seen only as female versions of homosexual men. Discontented by being silent, the lesbian community wanted their voices to be heard among the fight against the dictatorship. Eventually, the underground women's organization MAKIBAKA released a position paper that included sexual orientation as part of the gender equality movement. The inclusion of the queer women in the conversation about equal rights for women spurred a cascade of change. Later in the 1990s, gender and sexuality was a major concern i...

By Nicole Silvestre Women's month is a celebration of women’s success and contribution to our society. Inclusion has been a long standing issue in the movement towards equality, and for LGBTQIA+ women it is a bigger struggle to remain visible. During dictatorship in the 1980’s, the lesbian community struggled to be visible to the public due to subsumption of their rights between women’s rights that were previously heterosexual in nature and gay movement that previously regarded them as female version of homosexual men. It is already 2019 and the same struggles can be seen happening in the trans community. Photo by Raine Cortes History of Trans Women in the Philippines Contrary to popular belief, transgender women or trans women did not just pop-up in the 20th century. Several accounts in Philippine history prove that trans women had played important roles in our society even before the Spaniards came to the Philippines. The most popular of which are the Babaylans or Visayan Shaman...

Jan Gabriel M. Castañeda If you search for “transition” on Google, it actually gives a specific definition for gender transition: to “ adopt permanently the outward or physical characteristics of the gender one identifies with, as opposed to those associated with one's birth sex .” It’s an incomplete definition, of course: it’s not just outward characteristics that change. Neither are they always the most important changes which that assume such changes happen at all: being transgender doesn’t always mean having extreme discomfort with the body you’re born with, as we’ll talk about later. But transitioning, in whatever form it takes, does mean a change that radically alters an individual. Many transgender people, very appropriately, refer to this as a “journey”. While we are talking about transgender people specifically, it’s helpful to note that every person “transitions” at many points in their lives. We transition when we grow up and take on new responsibilities. We transition w...

By Tino Largado When does your strength become your weakest point? Nicole Silvestre, LoveYourself Volunteer, on her BPO Queen 2018 experience: “It was a battle between myself and my limitations.” For LoveYourself Volunteer Nicole Silvestre, her confident response to this question sealed her fate on the 29th of May, 2018. Having already bested 22 other candidates vying to be the very first BPO Queen, Nicole took no time in drawing a heartfelt answer not only based from experience, but inspired by her volunteer organization, no less. “My biggest strength will never be my weakest point because this is something I can always hold on to. I believe that loving yourself will always be your biggest strength and it will never be a weakness.” Nicole bagged First Runner-Up at the end of the night —  a feat Nicole herself considers a satisfying end to the journey of a 26-year old BPO employee who, only months ago, had one previous office pageant and a noontime show transgender queen search on ...