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Looking at How the Collective Identity of the Gay and Lesbian Social Movement in the Philippines and Singapore Is Created and Used

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Looking at How the Collective Identity of the Gay and Lesbian Social Movement in the Philippines and Singapore Is Created and Used WHEN THE “BAKLA” AND THE “AJ” FIGHT BACK: LOOKING AT HOW THE COLLECTIVE IDENTITY OF THE GAY AND LESBIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES AND SINGAPORE IS CREATED AND USED JAN WENDELL CASTILLA BATOCABE (B.A. POLITICAL SCIENCE (HONS)) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2011 Acknowledgments I embarked on this project with nothing but vague ideas. All I knew then was I wanted to write a thesis on the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) movement in Southeast Asia. Luckily, I got to meet a lot of people who, in one way or another, helped me figure out the specifics of this inquiry and allowed me to make sense of the vague and confusing ideas in my head. Alas, I shall take this opportunity—no matter how limiting it may be—to offer my appreciation to everyone who helped me get through this challenging yet fun research on LGBT movement organizations in the region. First, I would like to extend my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Irving Johnson, for allowing me to have a glimpse of how anthropologists and area studies specialists would approach my thesis topic, as compared with what I was used to as an undergraduate student of Political Science. Second, I would also like to thank Dr. Douglas Kammen, and Dr. Chie Ikeya for helping me organize and write my thoughts in a more cogent and succinct way. Third, I would like to thank Dr. Kenneth Paul Tan for his comments about my preliminary thesis findings and outputs. Last, I am indebted to all of my lecturers and academic mentors at the National University of Singapore for helping me identify my strengths and weaknesses as a student. I am also grateful to all those who helped me secure and gather the different information and data I needed for my thesis. Particularly, I would like to thank Bemz Benedito, Germaine Leonen, Ging Cristobal, Chris Lopera, and Danton Remoto for their time and patience in answering my questions and giving me the documents I was looking for about Ang Ladlad. Moreover, I would also like to thank Eva Callueng, Bruce Amoroto, Michael Tan, Jomar Fleras, Rev. Ceejay Agbayani, Fr. Richard Mickley, and Naomi Fosato for providing me the documents and narrating the different stories behind the past Pride Marches in the Philippines. Last, I would i like to extend my appreciation to Jack Yong Ho, Dominic Chua, Paerin Choa, and Russell Heng for their time in supplying me all the information I needed for Pink Dot and PLU. Furthermore, I would like to thank my extended family in Singapore for the support and laughter I needed to get through the difficult times which I had to endure as a student in diaspora. I am very much thankful to my fellow SEA graduate students who have all been supportive and accommodating throughout the course of my studies. I am also fortunate enough to meet my sweet, thoughtful, and encouraging “Becky Timah family,” the people in my “Friday Club,” and all of my local friends in this foreign country. Of course, I shall forever be thankful for meeting my “Dollhouse family” who ended up as my constant support group away from home – always giving me words of encouragement to finish this thesis. Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family—Jaime, Wilma, Jerick, and Ninang—and to all LGBT movement organizations in Southeast Asia. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements i – ii Table of Contents iii List of Tables iv List of Figures v Chapter 1: 1 – 19 The Narrative, the Different Puzzles, and the Approach Chapter 2: 20 – 32 A brief historical sketch of homosexuality in the Philippines, LGBT community, Ang Ladlad, and the Pride Marches from 1994 to 2009 Chapter 3: 33 – 44 A brief historical sketch of homosexuality in Singapore, LGBT community, People Like Us (PLU), and Pink Dot Chapter 4: 45 - 66 Unpacking the Stories Chapter 5: 67 - 76 Discussion and Conclusion Bibliography: 77 - 84 iii List of Tables Table 1. Themes of the past Pride Marches Table 2. Platforms of Ang Ladlad for both the 2007 and 2010 Elections Table 3. Summary iv List of Figures Figure 1. Bernstein’s Theoretical Framework: Political Identity Model (PIM) Figure 2. Collective Action Frame (CAF) Firgure 3. Theoretical Approach v Chapter 1. The Narrative, the Different Puzzles, and the Approach I. Narrative "We still don't even have a name we can all call ourselves. We are many people. We always have been. There is no such thing as a homosexual anymore, if there ever was. There is no inclusive word to embrace us all. Gay is what we're using now, though I know few who really are happy with this word. Queer is truly hateful to many, including me. It is a revolting word and a million miles from connoting pride upon its bearers. It took people of color in America many centuries to coalesce as Africa-Americans. Perhaps we need more time to locate and agree on our name." (Larry Krammer) As what was seen as a momentous episode in Philippine LGBT1 activism, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) organization known as Ang Ladlad attempted to make history by participating in the country’s party list election in two consecutive polls. The group first partook in the 2007 local polls with the party slogan, Equal Rights and NOT Special Rights, while it capitalized on the theme of Pantay na Karapatan Para sa Lahat (Equal Right[s] for Everyone) during the 2010 General Elections. In both instances, Ang Ladlad attempted to be the official LGBT organization that would forward the legislative interests of the sexual minorities2 in the Lower House of Representatives by consistently anchoring its advocacies in the language of human rights and the principle of equality before the rule of law. Unlike the single and consistent image of Ang Ladlad, organizers of the country’s previous Pride Marches opted to use different approaches to celebrating the LGBT community and highlighting the issues confronting the sexual minorities in the country. The first Pride March in 1994 was highly anti-government and Marxist in orientation, while the succeeding three gatherings abandoned the approach of its predecessor, and chose a pro-government and highly celebratory tone instead. This seemingly fragmented approach to the Pride Marches has continued until the present, with organizers focusing on different themes every year. 1 Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender 2 Throughout this thesis, I will interchangeably use LGBTs and sexual minorities to refer to those who are considered outside the ‘contested heteronormative’ gender norms. While the terms may be read and interpreted differently, I decided to ignore these conceptual differences to highlight the way society treat all forms of sexual deviancy as the same. 1 In a country down south, gay and lesbian activism in Singapore first became public after a group of 10 LGBT advocates, involving six gay men, two lesbians, and two straight women, submitted an application to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in November 1996 to have their ‘informal’ meeting group be legally recognized as part of the civil society. With People Like Us (PLU) as its official name, the members and supporters hoped that the government would grant its application to make the organization as the ‘official’ support group for Singaporean LGBTs. (Webmaster, History of PLU: the first registration attempt 1996-1997, 2003). The country’s Registry of Societies, however, later denied the application. The group’s members submitted another registration application in 2004 using the same non-radical and pro-active approach to LGBT activism, although their intentions were also turned down by the government (Webmaster,” Government refuses to register People Like Us again”, 2004). Although both attempts to register PLU failed, members and supports of the Singaporean LGBT community later found another avenue to fight for its basic rights without the government shutting down their initiative. Initially launched as a peaceful gathering in 2009, Pink Dot has now evolved into an annual event where sexual minorities and their supporters come together as one community to reaffirm the right to love and be loved regardless of one’s sexual orientation. While organizers have still refused to label Pink Dot as an exclusively LGBT event, the gathering has been used as a venue to rally open-minded individuals to fight bigotry and discrimination against sexual minorities in the country. The different approaches of Ang Ladlad and Pride Marches in the Philippines as well as PLU and Pink Dot in Singapore to LGBT activism are puzzling knowing that these organizations and events all have the same goal of eliminating the discrimination against those who deviate from the so-called heteronormative norms. What made Ang Ladlad focus on the concept of human rights, while Pink Dot anchored its campaign in the notions of freedom to love and the importance of family acceptance? Do these variations represent the different standpoints of the 2 people behind them, or do they simply illustrate how fragmented the LGBT movement is? Do these differences support or refute any existing theory in the study of social movements? Coming from the burgeoning literature that focuses on the different roles that collective identity plays in social movements, this thesis explores the relationship between the aforementioned concept and the tactical choices of the activists. Specifically, I plan to look at how the identity of an LGBT movement organisation is related to the activists’ strategy to reach their political goals. Drawing on the gay and lesbian social movement organisations in the Philippines and Singapore, I would attempt to uncover a plausible link between way the collective identity is formed and employed.
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