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Broadening Lesbian Representation and Advocacy in our Collective Struggle for Equality: Gains and Challenges

Aida F. Santos
weDpro-inc.

A brief herstory: from the closet to the margins

To my knowledge, lesbian advocacy started in a feminist collective called Katipunan ng Kababaihan para sa Kalayaan, or KALAYAAN, for short. KALAYAAN was founded in 1983, and blossomed as a feminist collective until mid 1990s. Sometime in 1984, KALAYAAN started its discussion on homosexuality in a regular education sessions that was initially housed in the office of the Diliman Review, a stone’s throw away from where we now sit. I recall that little conscientious group, composed of 5 to 0 women and three men who had joined us—the only male members of KALAYAAN ever. Then, we were analyzing the sexuality component of homosexuality, and what we perceived as human rights violations against their rights as a group of people whose marginal status in society has been a butt of jokes, painful discrimination and in some cases, awesome violence. That time, no one in KALAYAAN was ready to come out as a lesbian or gay. It was, one might say, an intellectual journeying, as part of KALAYAAN’s search for its feminist ideals.

In 1985, my lesbian identity surfaced, and openly I waded my own fears, my own doubts. It was a painful, lonely coming out. From then on, I felt like a little boat in a vast sea, floating without an anchor. It was a lonely travel, except for the steadfast support of my closest sisters in KALAYAAN.

Fastforward. Sometime in early 1990s, in a little room in what was called the KALAYAAN house in Cubao, Quezon City, a group of younger lesbians, fearing the stigma and discrimination known to hound women who did not conform to compulsory heterosexuality, began to meet and discuss personal concerns about their sexuality. It was a hidden, closeted phenomenon that the women dared. It was a slow but sure breaking the silence process. It was in the same period in mid-1990s when other initiatives were formed. There was the The Lesbian Collective or TLC. I am not sure exactly when it started and when it dissipated. (If there were others, I was not privy to these initiatives.)

On March 8, 1993, lesbians marched during the celebration of International Women’s Day. It was a spirited day, and friends and allies were there to cheer the coming out of lesbians, right in Mendiola, venue of many historical struggles. ALERT, an informal network of lesbian groups and individuals was formed mainly in support of two lesbians who came out with their story of discrimination, ironically, from a human rights organization. In 1996, the First National Lesbian Rights Conference was held, under the wings of WEDPRO, as part of our organization’s human rights advocacy, and in particular, of our concern for lesbian rights. Three groups formed the FNLRC steering committee: LesBond in Baguio, The Group in Davao, and WSWC. Before that the Women Supporting Women Committee, now known as the Woymn Supporting Womyn Center, had launched what I know to be the first lesbian hotline.

From there, several groups in Metro Manila came to being—CLIC, LeAp! and LeApunan, ProLes, Indigo, Sappho, Soul, among others. Organizations became emboldened to announce their existence, and others were formed in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, signaling what to me appeared as the coming of age of gay rights movement. Young people in schools and universities found pride in their closeted identity. Some organizations have opened their advocacies and clearly articulated their solidarity with lesbian and gay issues, such as Akbayan and Amnesty International-Pilipinas.

LAGABLAB is the first national network that has identified itself as a broad-based alliance working on legislative advocacy to push forward not only lesbian and gay visibility, but equally important, to challenge the legal arena and address in legislative terms the discrimination and marginalization of lesbian, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, transsexuals and other groups whose existence and status in society has been marginalized. This is a dramatic part of the development of our human rights struggle.

Moments of struggles: a personal herstory

I kept journal entries about that period. I want to share with you excerpts from my journal—these are indeed subjective thoughts and assessment. But my thoughts were part of the questioning that I am sure lesbians and other people might have been nurturing inside them. This entry was particularly addressed to a small group of younger lesbians in early 1990s, and in particular to a lesbian who had forwarded the idea that lesbian others ought to establish their own separate groups from the group of young, unmarried lesbians.

1 April 1994

“…in this period of your development, you have with you two letters (an exchange between myself and a member of that group), which I am actually hoping will serve as silver linings in the seemingly stormy cloud of your birthing… Those two letter are a manifestation of what, in my observation, the (name of the group) has not responded to—political unities versus individual herstories. As I reflect on X’s letter, I have a set of questions that kept popping out of my head: why did you get together? What and who are you within the women’s movement? What are your intentions in terms of your declaration as lesbians-feminist? What are your collective herstories? What are the ways in which you want to be heard? Why did you march on March 8, 1993? Visibility is one agenda, I know… X mentions the banner making, the march, the discussions as “glorious” moments. .. Anyone who labels herself as a lesbian and a feminist is expected to live and act like one.

“…of course there are many forms of feminisms…but there are, certainly, certain characteristics that are fundamental to claiming a label… Feminists are divided by class, race and politics. Feminism is ideological….

“I’ve often heard in your discussions the term ‘grassroots.’ I wonder whether we actually understand the term…. In my time, we called them ‘masa.’ In my long years of political activism, I’ve also gone through a stage where romanticizing the ‘masa’ was an enamouring stage of my own development. We needed to clarify the terms we used to gain unity…to get out of the petty habit of self—indulgence, which seems to me a habit of a few of your members, and to get on with our collective agenda for social transformation. We also rebelled with authorities, within and outside of the formal structures of the movement, but we also studied the history of our elders too. We were historical. In breaking down traditions, one has to know first those traditions…

“I am afraid of the seeming tendency within a few members of your group towards insularity and parochialism. It is the trap to bigotry.

Sometimes I think: so what if we study the history of the gender continuum, or of ‘horizontal hostilities’ among women and lesbians? Or of new families? Do we challenge the world? Do we become better persons?

I wish to see your group imbued with a sense of collectiveness, of embracing all lesbians despite differences in class and age, of a sense of history, a passion for a genuine purpose…driven by a passion for real change, within and without our little circles, a group that identifies itself and moves along the history of change. I have this dream because I am one of those who waited for this moment when politicized lesbians will come out… A group, unless vested with a vision, will collapse…and visioning is akin to an erupting volcano—it changes, reshapes the entirety of the landscape. It sears because it burns old thinking, destroys myths and searches new paths…”

It’s been ten years since I wrote those ruminations. I still believe in what I wrote. I still believe that we have gaps that we need to address.

Moving on: from the personal to the political

So now, how do I move from there? How do we move from where I found the questions burning in my heart? Have we moved? Where to, and how?

Broadening Lesbian Representation and Advocacy in our Collective Struggle for Equality—big dreams, big words. It’s been a long time since 1983. We have achieved a lot: there are more lesbian and gay groups, young homosexuals have come out proud of their identity and sexuality (some it quite outrageously shocking to the general public), companies sponsor the gay pride parade, some people cheer us on during our marches, we have deliberated and written our advocacies, we have found allies even in the House of Congress that is a bastion of homophobia and patriarchy. There are sex shops that are obviously catering not only to the daring but as well to our sexual fantasies. Gay rights slogans have become badge of courage. Our struggles are mainstreamed in social movements. We openly challenge the media portrayal of lesbians and gays even as the stereotypes are still a main ingredient of popular culture—the flamboyant, stupid bading and the aggressive tomboy. In many ways we have come of age.

But I am looking for more lesbians from factories, fields and offices to come in numbers, to unclothe themselves of fear and lack of self-esteem and become proud of who they are. Lesbian mothers are particularly invisible in the landscape of our organizing efforts. Women in prostitution have been barely touched in terms of their lesbian identity. I am looking for more “straight” sisters to join us as it this is their own struggle. We are women before we are lesbians, and they are women before they are “straights.” Our connectiveness has to be emphasized because the context of our struggles is in the history of our activism as a people. Our rights are embedded in human rights.

I am also wanting to see brothers in the gay groups shed their misogynism, of their maleness and their exaggerated notions of our femininity. These exaggerations are caricatures of our femaleness, a counterposition to what we feminists-lesbian want to shed off: the patriarchal notions of our femininity and what men desire us to be: a sexual vessel for male desires and perversion of women’s sexualities. I don’t know whether our definitions of pluralism and diversity are the same. But even pluralism and diversity have political standpoints. Our identities are socially constructed and imbued with politics.

We shape our sexualities according to the terrain of our desires and the shaping of our identities. To me, old fashion as it may sound, I believe that there are ethical issues in the ways we express our sexualities and our sexual desires. In reclaiming our various names or labels (butch, fem, tomboy, pars, mars, etc.) we shall also define the standards of our compassionate humanity. We need to address the violence between and among us, and this oftentimes, take the form of what is termed “horizontal hostilities.” We need to address the factionalisms within our groups, and to squarely face the issue of class divisions and leadership.

Finally, allow me to pick up some points from the report of the First National Lesbian Rights Conference held in 1996. Take note that since then, no other national event of this type has been held, and I guess the lessons learned and the insights taken are still relevant to our agenda and advocacy. The key recommendations are the following:

1. Re-echo the FNLRC results
2. Continue education on lesbian issues
3. Organize lesbians along sectoral lines and build a national coalition or alliance
4. Campaign on specific lesbian issues within the women’s movement and within the lesbian community
5. Share positive lesbian stories with the public
6. Work on Filipino theory building to be popularized for the lesbian public
7. Exercise our rights: lobby for lesbian-favorable laws
8. Support each other as we work for greater visibility
9. Link up with other women’s organizations working on women’s rights
10. Declare December 8 as National Lesbian Day

Some of the action calls are being addressed, some need greater attention. Others need to be placed once more in our agenda. A few have been relegated for future action. Except for some clearly programmed efforts in a few organizations, linking up in a more sustained fashion with women’s groups is an agenda that needs our energies and resources. We need to begin to seriously work on our theorizing efforts, and sharpen our legislative advocacy.

In the Conference statement, there were five major points raised, under the theme lesbian rights as human rights:

1. Right to express our sexuality
2. Right to form families
3. Right to self-determination
4. Right to participate in political discourse and action
5. Right to just wages, benefits and job security

These rights are rights that belong to everyone. To sustain and sharpen our theory building and organizing agenda, we have to articulate the specificities of our needs to express our sexuality, forming families, self-determination, and to concretely show how we are discriminated in respect to just wages, benefits and job security—for these, too, are problems that we share with nearly all marginalized sectors of society.

To broaden lesbian participation, we need to heighten our organizing and education that could widen the base of our support within the women’s movement and other civil society groups. We need to assert our rights as women and as a people, and link up these rights with the broad human rights demands of the marginalized and discriminated groups in our society. We need solidarity that demands genuine sisterhood and friendship. We need to be transparent and accountable to each other. Only then can we sustain the gains that we’ve worked so hard for some 20 years ago.