February 22 to 23, 2017 | Brentwood Suites, Quezon City, Philippines
The ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, in cooperation with ICS[1] of Vietnam, organized the "Regional Workshop to Promote Family Acceptance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) Persons in ASEAN" from 22 to 23 February 2017 in Brentwood Suites, Quezon City. The workshop brought together LGBTIQ organizations from across Southeast Asia and featured members of Vietnam’s PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) as key resource speakers. One of the key objectives of the workshop was to provide a space to share good practices in promoting family acceptance for LGBTIQ persons, and help participants develop plans of action at the national and regional levels.
Ryan Silverio, Regional Coordinator of ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, opened the first day of the workshop. He emphasized that Southeast Asia is a place of great diversity and therefore the people should embrace that diversity, including sexual and gender diversity. Later, Dr. Judy Taguiwalo, the Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development mentioned within her keynote speech “The need to assert SOGIE in our works has become a priority.” She also called on local government units to support campaigns to promote acceptance of LGBTIQ people. “We cannot separate LGBTQI rights from the larger human rights struggle.”
During the first session, our keynote speakers: Dr. Francis Mina from University of Philippine (UP) Manilla, Marcella Donaal of ChildFund Philippines and Ingrid Saplagio from GALANG[2], gave insights to the participants about the meaning of family acceptance for LGBTIQ community and why is this important in ASEAN. Some of the key messages are that family acceptance makes LGBTIQ people strong and buffers against the negative impact of society against them and family acceptance should entail concrete steps to fight for equality, together with their LGBTIQ family members. During the Q&A session, mong the key issues highlighted by participants were the challenges in reconciling LGBTIQ issues with cultural norms surrounding family, engaging with religious communities, and providing safe spaces for parents and other family members to share their concerns and fears openly.
The session continued with sharing from the members of PFLAG Vietnam. Each of them shared their journey towards accepting their LGBTIQ children. Nguyet, one of the parents from PFLAG Vietnam who had a transgender son and a gay son, called on everyone to engage with families and left the participants with a parting message: “Live true to yourself. Love will heal everything in the end. We will keep sending to you our love from Vietnam.”
Day 2 was opened by the keynote speech from Commissioner Karen S. Gomez Dumpit from the Commission on Human Rights of Philippines, who conveyed, “Family is the first circle to protect every person.” After that, participants were divided into groups to discuss about what makes the family members aware, respect and take action to promote the rights and wellbeing of their LGBTIQ family members. Some of the factors are the availability of information related to sexual orientation and gender identity expression (SOGIE) and the existence of organizational supports such as PFLAG. It is important for parents and families to have access to knowledge on LGBTIQ and SOGIE.
At the end of the workshop the participants were asked to discuss about what are the action plan that can be conducted in national and regional level. Some participants mentioned about the establishment of support groups for family members in their respective countries. In the regional level, all of participants agreed that there should be a regional network that provides safe space for the LGBTIQ and their family members to share stories and work together to promote family acceptance in ASEAN level.
[1] ICS is an organization of LGBTIQ people in Vietnam working towards a vision of Vietnam as a country where sexual minorities are treated equally, where everyone can live true to themselves, and make their best contributions to the development of society. [http://ics.org.vn/en]
[2] GALANG started out as a small group of lesbian friends who were either keenly observing or actively engaged in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activist communities in the Philippines. [http://www.galangphilippines.org/about/who-we-are/]
