Special Section LGBT psychology in the Philippines Eric Julian Manalastas & Beatriz A. Torre This paper presents an account of the initial developments towards an LGBT psychology in the Philippines. We situate this on critical events leading to: (1) an official policy by the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) against anti-LGBT discrimination in 2011, the first in south-east Asia; and (2) the institutionalisation in 2014 of the PAP’s LGBT Psychology Special Interest Group. Organising efforts have focused in four areas: research, education, advocacy, and practice. National conferences have served as naturally occurring moments for mainstreaming and visibility within the profession. Research progress is evidenced by the publication in 2013 of a special LGBT issue of the Philippine Journal of Psychology. Education efforts have involved teaching an undergraduate elective on LGBT psychology, training of psychology teachers to integrate sexual and gender diversity, and conduct of ‘LGBT Psych 101’ seminars. Advocacy has focused on ‘giving away’ LGBT psychology through engagement with the activist community, media, and support for anti-discrimination legislation. Finally, initial work in professional practice has been around raising awareness of LGBT issues in counselling. We reflect on these initial successes and present lessons learned as well as next steps for the development of an LGBT-inclusive psychology in south-east Asia. Keywords: Philippines; professional organising; LGBT psychology. UCH CAN BE DONE within the years. We begin with critical events from field of psychology to advance the 2009–2011 in Philippine society that led the Mhuman rights and wellbeing of Psychological Association of the Philippines lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (PAP) to adopt a landmark policy resolution (LGBT) individuals, families, and communi- on LGBT nondiscrimination, the first of its ties. The Philippine case is no exception. As kind by a professional mental health associa- a developing country with a long history of tion in south-east Asia. A discussion of the colonisation under Spanish and US regimes on-going initiatives and early results building often considered the largest predominantly on this enabling policy platform follows, conservative Roman Catholic nation in Asia, including the founding of the PAP’s LGBT where same-sex marriage, gender identity Psychology Special Interest Group and our recognition, sex work, abortion, and even work in the fourfold areas of research, heterosexual divorce remain illegal, the education, advocacy, and practice. Finally, we Philippines appears to be an unlikely envi- conclude with lessons learned thus far as well ronment for fostering inclusion, affirmation, as reflections on challenges ahead for LGBT and activism for gender and sexual minori- psychology in the Philippine context. ties within psychology. Despite these contextual factors, we will The Philippine context: An LGBT- tell a story of the initial gains and successes friendly country in south-east Asia? made within Philippine psychology towards The Philippines is one of many archipelagic positive engagement of sexual orientation countries in maritime south-east Asia. Classi- and gender diversity. This paper aims to fied by the World Bank (2015) as a lower- provide a narrative account, based on our middle-income economy, a quarter (25.2 per perspectives as insiders, on the progress and cent) of the population of 100.1 million developments of an LGBT-inclusive psycho- Filipinos currently live below the national logy in the Philippines over the past five poverty threshold (defined as living on less 60 Psychology of Sexualities Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 2016 © The British Psychological Society LGBT psychology in the PhilippTiniteles than PhP8,778 or GBP 131.51 per month). for LGBT rights and equality is alive and well Filipinos, as a culture, have experienced a (UNDP, USAID, 2014). Within this backdrop long history of colonial rule under Spain, came one critical event in 2009, when a spanning the 16th to the 19th century, collective of LGBT Filipinos filed a petition followed by US occupation from 1898 to to run for a seat in the party-list system of the 1946. One of the lasting influences of the legislature under the banner of a political Spanish regime was in terms of religion – the party called Ang Ladlad (a Tagalog phrase Philippines, along with East Timor, remains meaning ‘those who are out or openly one of two majority Roman Catholic coun- LGBT’). Their petition was disapproved by tries in Asia, with 80.6 per cent of Filipinos the Commission on Elections, who, citing belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. verses from the Catholic Bible as well as the Although the Philippine Constitution guar- Quran, declared that Ang Ladlad, being antees separation of state and church, public composed of LGBT Filipinos, advocated debates and legal policies on a range of ‘immoral doctrines’ and represented a social issues are often highly influenced by threat to ‘the wellbeing of the greater religious fundamentalism and Roman number of our people, especially the youth’ Catholic morality (Ruiz Austria, 2004). (Commission on Elections, 2009). Same-sex marriage, gender identity recogni- Along with other concerned Filipino tion, sex work, and abortion are all illegal. psychologists, we requested that the Psycho- Only in 2012 did the Philippine parliament logical Association of the Philippines (PAP), pass a highly contested law for reproductive our national professional organisation, issue health, including access to contraceptives a public statement concerning the Commis- and sexuality education in primary and sion on Elections’ ruling, particularly its secondary schools, after more than a decade claim that gender and sexual minorities in the legislature and a culture war that somehow threaten people’s wellbeing, pitted progressives and the women’s move- including the wellbeing of young people. ment with the local Roman Catholic bishops’ The PAP refused. Officials from PAP offered hierarchy. And heterosexual divorce still regrets, citing the absence of an institutional remains illegal in the Philippines; the only mechanism to engage in public interest other country that does not allow divorce is matters despite it being part of the PAP’s the ecclesiastical state of the Vatican. mission statement. More internal lobbying Despite the overall social and sexual ensued, and in February, 2010, the PAP conservatism in Filipino culture (Widmer, board formally instituted its Public Interest Treas & Newcomb, 1998), the Philippines is Committee, patterned after the American often considered one of the more LGBT- Psychological Association’s Public Interest friendly countries in south-east Asia. Despite Directorate, as a mechanism to address the centuries of colonial rule, same-sex sexual public on matters of social justice (J.E.G. behaviour has never been criminalised, Saplala, personal communication, 24 March, unlike in neighbouring Malaysia and Singa- 2010). pore. Indigenous constructions of gender At the same time, the Supreme Court of diversity that blend same-sex sexuality and the Philippines had taken on the case of Ang transgenderism exist and are widely known Ladlad. It eventually overturned the ruling (Garcia, 2013), such as bakla and bayot, terms of the Commission on Elections, paving the in the Tagalog and Bisaya languages that may way for the LGBT party’s participation in the refer to either same-sex attracted men, espe- May 2010 national elections. Although a cially feminine gay men, or to male-to-female public statement from PAP became moot at transgender individuals (Nadal & Corpus, this point, LGBT issues had come to the 2013). Pride events were celebrated as early attention of the Philippine’s national as the mid-1990s, and civil society organising psychology organisation in a way it never had Psychology of Sexualities Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 2016 61 AEruicth Jourl inaanm Me analastas & Beatriz A. Torre before. And there was a positive change Tagalog was drafted and approved in within PAP’s organisational structure high- November, 2014, and subsequently lighting the importance of ‘psychology in published online1. To date, this policy is the the public interest’ (Brewster Smith, 1990), only official document of the PAP available which would be instrumental in laying the in official bilingual versions, in English and foundation for LGBT psychology in the in Tagalog. Philippines soon thereafter. The policy statement, the first of its kind by a professional mental health association Foundations: The PAP (2011) LGBT in Asia, affirms the inherent dignity and Non-discrimination Policy Resolution equality of individuals who are lesbian, gay, The PAP’s commitment to social justice and bisexual, and transgender, as well as their LGBT inclusion was tested in February 2011, right to be free from discrimination on the when a popular morning television talk show basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, called ‘Umagang Kay Ganda’ ran a segment and gender expression (SOGIE). The policy on lesbian and gay children, featuring a also affirms that same-gender sexual orienta- Filipino clinical psychologist as a guest tions are a healthy, non-disordered variant of expert. Asked how parents should respond human sexuality, love, and relationships – to having a lesbian or gay child, this PAP- a position made as early as 1973 by the certified psychologist advised conversion American Psychiatric Association and therapy in order to achieve a