Pride is a Protest! Stop the Attacks on the LGBTQ Community!
Context
GABRIELA USA condemns the recent killings of Trans Women in the Philippines! We demand a swift and thorough investigation into the deaths of Ali Macalintal and Keirra Apostol! We hold the fascist Marcos Jr. regime accountable for the worsening conditions of press freedom and public safety, where they fail to provide steadfast protections for LGBTQ+ Filipinos and the right to free speech!
Ali Macalintal, 39 and a former journalist, served as the deputy secretary general of Karapatan in Soccsksargen, Mindanao. Her life is marked with a history of activism and advocating for human rights, organizing and taking part in several fact-finding missions at the height of former president Duterte’s “Drug War” which had taken the lives of tens of thousand innocent Filipinos. Ali’s life was ended after a gunman entered an acupuncture clinic she was attending and opened fire then fleeing on a motorcycle. She had sustained three gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on arrival to the hospital. Local police are working to confirm any connection from this killing to her work as a journalist.
On the opposite end of the archipelago, Keirra Apostol was just 18 years old when her lifeless body was found in a river near Penablanca, Cagayan. Keirra, a business management student of Cagayan State University, had been reported missing days prior to the finding when some of Keirra’s friends appeared at her family home, asking her mother of her whereabouts.
Their deaths are a stark reminder that even during a month where many are celebrating LGBTQ+ identity, the queer community in the Philippines is not truly free from senseless killings and discrimination. GABRIELA USA expresses our deepest condemnation and share sorrow with all of those who are affected. Killings of this nature will not end until we see an end to the system that upholds a deadly feudal-patriarchal culture within our society that only benefits the ruling class. The state will continue to turn a blind eye and neglect these cases while those in power uphold their interests instead of the lives of our suffering kababayan, and those fighting for their basic human rights and freedom of expression.
Particularization to US
The struggles of the LGBTQ+ community in the Philippines are intrinsically tied to those of the Filipino LGBTQ+ community in the US: they cannot be dealt with independently or separately. State forces in the US heavily surveil and attack progressive organizations and movements, with the plan of exporting these tactics to other nations such as the Philippines. The US military holds yearly war exercises in the Philippines such as Balikatan and Kamandag through which imperialist forces share their lethal practices in repressing all forms of the people's resistance, including that of the queer community. Military bases under direct US control through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) disrupt local livelihoods, foster dangerous industries of local prostitution, and expose women and LGBTQ+ to violence at the hands of US military personnel. An example of this is the case of Jennifer Laude, a Filipina trans woman who was brutally murdered by Joseph Scott Pemberton in 2014. Instead of upholding the demands of the Filipino people, former president Duterte pardoned Pemberton in a cowardly submission to the US and allowed him to return home without enacting true justice.
Even when queer Filipinos leave the Philippines and migrate to countries like the United States to escape gender based violence, they are still faced with brutal conditions. Besides his rampant transphobic rhetoric, US President Donald Trump's attempt to deny passports to trans people could make it more difficult for trans Filipino migrants to travel home and reunite with their families. With rising amounts of kidnappings at the hands of ICE and other federal agencies, queer Filipinos who migrated to escape gender-based violence and persecution due to their identities are at constant risk of being sent back home or deported to unfamiliar countries and detained in inhumane conditions. Instead of finding a better life, queer Filipinos in the US find nothing but more isolation and concern for their well being.
The regular violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community in both the US and Philippines is a feature of US imperialism, not a coincidence. The same ruling class that has relentlessly pushed for the elimination of queer rights in the US is the same ruling class that maintains the backwards feudal patriarchy in the Philippines.
Analysis
Since its introduction in 2000, the SOGIESC Bill—which seeks to protect individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics—has been repeatedly filed and shot down in Congress. This ongoing failure reveals the deliberate inefficacy of a political system that continues to ignore and marginalize the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, Marcos’s silence on LGBTQ+ issues in each and every one of his State of the Nation Addresses is not just an oversight—it's one more example of how the government doesn't serve the genuine interests of the people.
This silence isn't just neglect; it is complicity. At the root of the violence and discrimination faced by queer Filipinos are the semicolonial and semifeudal conditions that deny even the most basic rights, especially to trans women and the greater LGBTQ+ community. While reforms like the SOGIESC Bill are important, they are ultimately bandaid solutions that can never address the deep structural violence at the heart of Philippine society. True protection can only come in the form of a genuinely pro-people government.
As GABRIELA, we recognize that queer Filipinos face a multi-layered oppression. Queer Filipinos come from all classes of Philippine society, including the majority of the population composed of workers and peasants, who are the most exploited and oppressed under a class system designed to serve the ruling elite. At the same time, they are targeted for their gender and sexual identity—a form of discrimination rooted in the pervasive feudal-patriarchal culture of the Philippines, a result of centuries colonization and enabled by the ongoing influence of imperialism. These forms of oppression aren't separate, but are deeply intertwined.
Pride itself was born out of resistance to systemic violence and state repression. Today, the ruling classes co-opt queer identity through tactics like pink-washing, offering token inclusivity while preserving the very systems that facilitate violence and exclusion. As GABRIELA, we know that genuine liberation means more than legal recognition, it means dismantling the very systems that perpetuate oppression in the first place.
This is why collective action is essential. We must resist not only discrimination but also the systems that sustain it. Our struggle is not just for inclusion, but for liberation: for a truly liberated society where LGBTQ+ lives are free from class oppression and exploitation, where they are safe from violence, and where they are free to express themselves however they want. While reforms may offer relief, it is only through the long-term struggle for genuine liberation through National Democracy that the Filipino people will truly be free.
Solution
The fight continues and we take inspiration from the many people who have dedicated their lives to the true solution to gender-based oppression. We uplift the lives of Chad Booc, Ka Daisy and Ali Macalintal -- all who took on different forms of organizing at different capacities and gave their lives to the struggle. We celebrate the militanteng bakla that continue to serve the people! We take inspiration for the many brave activists who are on the people's side of history. We encourage all Filipino queers to join in this crucial task to fight for a truly liberated Philippines and towards a bold and bright future!