Anti-Discrimination Bill; Pro or Anti?

The SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression) Equality Bill also known as the Anti-Discrimination Bill is one of the center of discussion in the Senate in the recent days.

The discussion was triggered by an incident where a member of LGBTQ was prohibited to use the female restroom inside a shopping mall and was handcuffed then brought to the police station. The LGBTQ member is a transgender woman was able to take a video, or a live broadcast rather, where she was seen accompanied by a janitress to the administrative office of the said establishment. Upon noticing that she was live, the janitress tried to snatch the phone away. The other staff, including the guard, then asked her to stopped as well. However, she continued to stream the live video on social media. Soon after, she was taken to the police station, handcuffed, for questioning.

The video went viral on social media and various platforms. It sparked outrage and divided the public’s opinion. Then the mainstream media caught on, hence attracting a wider audience including the lawmakers.

The SOGIE Equality Bill has been discussed. The main purpose is to protect the rights and ensure equality for the members of the LGBTQ community. However, one of the main issues among pro and anti-SOGIE Bill is whether to provide a restroom exclusive for the members of the said community, in addition to Male and Female restrooms or not.

Apart from the obvious disapproval of the church due to religious reasons, they called for the consideration of the public view on the bill. But the Senate President’s opinion drew flak from supporters of the bill when he openly said there’s no chance for the bill to be passed.

Those who are opposed to the bill states that there is no need for such bill specified for the LGBTQ community since anti-discrimination are already covered by existing laws.

Few days after the video of the mall incident went viral, other angles are surfacing such as the ‘victim’ was intoxicated during that time. Many expressed their support to the janitress who, they claim, was just doing her job but on the verge of losing it because of the incident, and the transgender woman should have just used the PWD cubicle.

So, what do you think? Should a third category for restrooms be built? Where restroom should members of the LGBTQ community use, male or female? As for the incident mentioned above, who should take responsibility? Who is at fault? And what do you think should be done to avoid such events?

Vocabulary

discrimination:the practice of treating one person or group differently from another in an unfair way.

LGBTQ:Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (Note:Queer might be considered offensive word)

janitress: a female of janitor(a person whose job is to look after a school or large buildings )

flak:strong criticism (informal word)

be on the verge of something:to be at the point where something is about to happen

PWD: Person With Disability (only used in Philippines)