2SLGBTQI+ Filipino/a/xs embracing their Filipino roots, language, cultures and talents in Treaty 1, Manitoba. 🇵🇭🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🕊️ The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in the Philippines have a distinctive culture[vague] in society, and also have limited legal rights. Despite recent events that have promoted the rights, general
acceptance, and empowerment of the Filipino LGBT community, discrimination remains. Homosexuals in the Philippines are known as "bakla", though there are other terms to describe them. According to Filipino poet and critic Lilia Quindoza Santiago, Filipino culture may have a more flexible concept of gender. Kasarian (Tagalog for "gender") is defined in less binary terms than the English word;[4] kasarian means "kind, species, or genus". Gender-crossing practices go back to the history of pre-colonial communities in the Philippines. The babaylans are typically female spiritual leaders, priests, or shamans in native communities, whose position can also be taken by males who crossed genders, and were called asog, among many names. Prior to colonization, the Philippines was a polytheistic nation with several tribes worshipping different deities. Those mythologies included transgender gods and goddesses like Lakapati (or Ikapati), the goddess of fertility and good harvest, who was described as an androgynous, intersex, or transgender goddess. With the general tolerance of the country towards the LGBT community, its members have organized a number of events in the past years to empower the Filipino community in creating a safe space for the LGBT community. Since the First Pride March in 1994, the LGBT community has continued to celebrate this event in the month of June. The more recent Pride Marches have become more visible to the public with its organizers' use of social media to promote the advocacy, and the events. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_culture_in_the_Philippines #:~:text=Homosexuals%20in%20the%20Philippines%20are,someone%20of%20the%20same%20sex.
