Beyond Partying: Characterizing the LGBTQ Movement in the Philippines

Abstract

Accounts about LGBTQ organizing in the Philippines, so far, focused on specific organizations like Ang Ladlad among others. Because of such focus, they fail to unpack the concept of LGBTQ movement. This paper fills this gap by providing historical overview of LGBTQ organizing in the country to reveal its various characteristics. Using oral accounts from seventeen (17) LGBTQ activists, this article argues the presence of an LGBTQ movement in the country. I deploy and interrogate the conceptual dichotomy between old and new social movements. The article not only unequivocally concludes that there is an LGBTQ movement in the Philippines. More importantly, this movement muddles the distinction between the old and the new.