The International Transgender Day of Visibility is commemorated every 31st of March in honor of transgender individuals who continue to champion their rights and authentic selves. Here in the Philippines, the community still faces harsh prejudice, with many institutions—schools included—refusing to acknowledge and uplift their chosen identities.
To bring this issue to light, non-profit organization PridePH released a harrowing video exposing such discrimination feauting Jelai Balbaera, a transgender woman and student.
WATCH: PridePH's Campaign for International Transgender Day of Visibility 2023
Titled as Batang Hinarang sa Lupang Hinirang, the clip depicts Jelai being forced to present male during her school's flag ceremony. "Transgender students like Jelai continue to be barred from being free—even in their chosen land or lupang hinirang," PridePH says in their official press release.
They detailed that in 2017, the Department of Education has already released a memorandum recognizing the sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual characteristics (SOGIESC) of teachers and students. A policy states that teachers and students are to be allowed and respected for how they choose to present themselves. Unfortunately, this isn't followed by many universities nationwide, and no sanctions are given for not doing so.
PridePH National Convener and Preview Most Influential 50 honoree Mela Habijan adds that, "We continue to get tragic accounts of trans nenes (girls) and totoys (boys) who are prohibited from expressing their true selves by their schools. Yet, we shall continue to fight."
"Transgender students and teachers deserve to be in schools and to present themselves as they are!"
Mela, along with the rest of the organization, hope that this campaign will remind schools to follow DepEd's memo on gender inclusivity, which will allow students like Jelai to freely express their truest selves.
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