philippines

Candy, transgender respondent:Men who hang out at [street] corners,they touch me. They ask me while doingthat, ‘Do I have a vagina yet?’ I tell them,‘None yet, just wait and we’ll get there.’Svetlana, transgender respondent:There was this guy [from out of nowhere]forcing me to have sex with him. I toldhim I can’t, I made all the excuses – No,no, no, am so tired, I have boyfriend.Suddenly I told him, [I] am sick, I haveSTD … he grab me somewhere in thedark, push me, like do something aboutit, do something very sexual like… I wasable to escape.Madelene is a transgender rape survivor, and wasable to put her abuse in a social context, lamentingthe fact that she was considered a slave, atoy, the recipient of punishment, a worthless sexobject, a used object, a nothing:My hands were tied behind my back and Iwas stripped of my clothes. Good thing Iwas able to escape... it was just ‘attempted’[rape], I mean... like you’re a sex slave; [a]play toy. It is tolerable men to have sexwith a transgender because [the perpetratoris] still a man and it is [the transgenderwomen’s] punishment because he’s makinghimself a woman. Punishment ... look,you’re dressed like a woman so I’ll have sexwith you ... It is like we’re just being usedbecause we do not have worth. You’re asexual object. You are used, and after thatyou are nothing.Manifestations ofDiscriminationDiscrimination in SchoolsSome teachers appeared to impose their ownpersonal values and used institutional rules tosuppress people’s gender expression, includinggiving students lower grades than they deserved.Lesbian respondent Kel:… she [my high school teacher] said …I should behave accordingly and not likethe way I’m behaving now... I had somecrushes, too; she didn’t like it... that’s whyshe’s involving my grades.Many of the LBT women interviewed said theyfelt pressured to alter their preferred gender expressionwhile at school and while wearing schooluniforms. They reported that some officials explicitlysought to change their behavior. Transgenderwoman, Madelene, said:You get to talk with the disciplinarian.They act like, “Why are you beingdisciplined?’ [I said] because of whatI wore, sir. ‘What are you wearing?’Women’s clothes. ‘Why are you wearinga woman’s clothes? You’re a man. Don’tyou know that it is a sin... because youare born as a man? God never mademan as a woman.’ They really let youfeel guilty so that you revert back to belike that.One school tasked health workers with determiningthe sexual orientation and genderidentity of particular students who had beensingled out for attention. Stef, transgenderrespondent said:… they [counselors] were trying torehabilitate us. … I think it was Grade 6… All of us, gays in the whole batch…Philippines: Kwentong Bebot 19