SAMAL, Bataan – Congresswoman Geraldine B. Roman, the Representative of the 1st District of Bataan, recently led the 2nd Bataan Equality Champs Summit (BECS) 2018 at the Coastal Grove Club House of this municipality.
The first BECS was done in 2016 when majority of the members of the LGBTQ community from this province gathered together to have one voice to prevent various economic and public accommodation-related acts of discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, the basic idea of Roman’s SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity or Expression) Equality Bill, also known as the Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB).
Roman was joined by Samal Vice Mayor Aida Macalinao and other local officials from various villages who also belong to the province’s LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) Community.
Geraldine’s mother, former Congresswoman Herminia B. Roman was also present who gave a brief inspirational message.
The event, led by its Chairman, former Dinalupihan municipal councilor Noli A. Soriano, was in connection with the June LGBT Pride Month. It was attended by more than 500 “equality champs” from all towns of the first district plus several participants from the 2nd District of the province.
Roman said she will talk to Bataan 2nd District Rep. Joet Garcia to extend this movement to other towns of Garcia’s district.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month (LGBT Pride Month) is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. The Stonewall riots were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States.
Roman made her speech about legislative updates on her Anti- Discrimination Bill and the SOGIE Bill. House Bill (HB) No. 4982 was passed on third and final reading nine months ago in the House of Representatives in what was widely celebrated as a victory for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
HB 4982, which consolidated 11 similar measures, was approved by 198 of 293 congressmen with nobody voting against the measure. The bill was sponsored by Diwa Rep. Emmeline Villar, Dinagat Rep. Kaka Bag-ao and Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman.
LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which was used to replace the term gay in reference to the LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s.
Activists believed that the term gay community did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred.
The initialism has become mainstream as a self-designation; it has been adopted by the majority of sexuality and gender identity-based community centers and media in the United States, as well as some other English-speaking countries.
The initialism LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures. It may be used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual identity; LGBTQ has been recorded since 1996.
