DEVIATION: The Problems Faced by the Aug Ladlad Party-list during the 2010 Elections

Abstract

The community of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transsexuals (LGBT) has been in existence as far back as the Ancient Greece when males castrated themselves and wore female clothing (Arthur, 1978). It was during the 1900s when this community transformed to a group of people who began to join the arena of social movements for their legal, political, and social equality (Halsall, 1997). There are a number of accounts pertaining to the active participation of the LGBT community in social movements and politics. In the United States of America, the Stonewall Riots during the 1960s were one of the first breakouts between members of the LGBT and the police. It was also said that it served as a precursor for LGBT pride marches, petition signing, and letter writing to fight for equal rights and recognition. (Smith & Haider-Markel, 2002) One of the first gay activists, and probably the most popular, to win a seat in public office was Harvey Milk in 1977. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. (Smith & Haider-Markel, 2002). In Asia, there are also a number of countries where LGBT communities actively participate in politics. In Israel, an annual Gay Pride parade is held with almost 20,000 participants (AFP, 2009). In 2008, the largest gay parade in Asia was held in Taipei (Tan, 2008). In the Philippines, a number of LGBT organizations organize pride marches such as ProGay-Philippines, Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network (LAGABLAB), and Society of Transsexual WOMEN of the Philippines (STRAP) (Leonin, 2010). As what was mentioned earlier, the LGBT community did not participate in social movements alone but also in elections. In the Philippines, the first LGBT political party is the Ang Ladlad party-list. In 2007, the organization first applied for accreditation with the COMELEC and was denied based on the ruling that it had no substantial membership base. (Remote, 2010) In 2009, the organization once again tried to file for accreditation as party-list for the 2010 elections. The researcher chose this topic for her study because it is interesting to unveil the problems faced by the said party-list during the 2010 elections given the fact that the Philippines is composed of 90% Catholics, which of course forbids homosexuality. The objective that (he researcher wishes to achieve by the end of this study is to know and identify the problems faced by the “Ang Ladlad” Party-list during the 2010 elections. Alongside this, the researcher also wants to know the factors the Filipino voters consider when choosing representatives during elections; how Filipinos perceive the “Ang Ladlad" Party-list and the LGBT community in general; reason behind the participation of the LGBT community in elections; and what the “Ang Ladlad” Party-list can do to have a better chance of winning in the 2013 elections. In order to give light to these objectives, the researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods. For the first part of the data gathering, the researcher made use of 3 key informant interviews. The key informant includes Atty. Germaine Leonin, vice-chairperson of the Ang Ladlad party-list and founder of the Rainbow Rights Project; Dr. Anthony Cordero, director of the University of the Philippines Manila Center for Gender and Women's Studies; and Spokesperson James Jimenez of the Commission on Elections. To complement the data, the researcher also made use of survey questionnaire to gather the feelings and insights of the electorate. 60 respondents from the University of the Philippines Manila were given asked to answer the questionnaire. The sample size was calculated using the Lynch formula; 30 respondents were from the Department of Social Sciences and the other 30 from the Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics. In analyzing the data, the researcher made use of two frameworks. First is Antonio Gramsci’s Cultural Hegemony which states that dominant cultural norms are not natural or inevitable; hence, it has its roots in the societal domination and societal liberation (Wikipedia, ND). Although it was first used in economic class situations, it was later on applied to the hegemonic characteristic of culture. The second framework is Pitkin’s Theories of Representation which states that there are three factors that voters consider when choosing their representative during elections such as Symbolic Representation, Descriptive Representation, and Substantive Representation. These two frameworks helped the researcher in giving light to the main objective of this study which is to identify the problems faced by the Aug Ladlad party-list during the 2010 elections. Towards the end of the study, the researcher arrived at three conclusions which are supported by the key informant interviews and survey questionnaires. First, discrimination is and still is the main problem faced by the LGBT community in general and this is traced from our culture which is highly influenced by the Church. Second, Filipinos in choosing their party-list during elections give importance to their commonalities with the members of the party-list or the representative per se and that representative must be someone who they can recall or remember. And last but not the least, the main problem of the ‘Ang Ladlad’ party-list in terms of there is their lack of visibility and platform dissemination. Given only 3 weeks to campaign, the party-list wasn’t able to reach out to many Filipinos in the country.