Even with relentless insistence, SOGIE Equality is still far from normality in Philippine society. Just recently, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST) came under flak as a video of a transwoman having to cut off her hair just to be admitted and enrolled went viral on X (formerly Twitter).
(Graphic by Renzo Cabitlada/The Communicator)
With the government still holding hostage the rights of trans people and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community by still not passing the SOGIE Bill, discrimination in schools and universities—where students should feel safe and accepted—only add to the toll the community bears in their fight to be recognized in a heteronormative society.
The school ultimately reasoned out that the specific colleges in their universities have different policies on grooming. The college involved in the video had a hair policy for women stating that it should not exceed lower than shoulder-length. The university further assured that they are supporting the expression of SOGIE on their campus.
Universities and other learning institutions are bastions of knowledge. Students enter these places to learn how to think and how to express themselves—to free and open their minds. Restrictions on entry and refusal of admissions, especially based on the expression of SOGIE, are in blatant contrast and a bastardization of the principles these institutions are created for.
As centers for knowledge, they should be at the forefront of opening the conversation for openness and acceptance of trans people in our conservative country, not perpetuating the vile oppression against them. To actively contribute to the persecution and discrimination already faced by trans people is to withhold their emotional and mental needs further, both a big factor in learning.
A report from Human Rights Watch revealed from interviews of queer students in the Philippines that exclusion, among others, “caused them to lose concentration, skip class, or seek to transfer schools;” all of which are hindrances to their rights to quality education.
Recognizing trans people's SOGIE is also a basic human decency that should not at all be an issue, especially in learning institutions. More than correcting these mistakes, all schools and universities in the country must prevent this from happening again by ensuring the safety of trans individuals and other LGBTQIA+ students in their rule handbooks. If they can codify their ridiculous rules for forced uniformity that bears nothing on learning, they can protect their students' well-being and rights to identity and expression.
Beyond discrimination, the very idea of enforced sameness and restricted expression of one's self is also a backward view of what discipline is about. Uniforms, dress codes, and hair guides are outdated icons of discipline that seek to strip away personal expression in favor of control over students. Schools are for learning and opening, not for conditioning and restricting. Doing this to students sends the message that only through forced policies of control can discipline and order be achieved—a dangerous idea to be imposed upon future generations.
After a protest action by various LGBTQIA+ rights groups, the policy in question is currently suspended by the Commission on Higher Education. While this is a win for equality and a testament to protesting, there is a long way to go before the success of EARIST is mirrored in every university in the country.
This incident further proves that SOGIE Equality goes much beyond the LGBTQIA+ Community and bears the need for the immediate and urgent passing of the SOGIE Bill for the protection of everyone against such exclusion and discriminatory rules.
The world and the times have changed. It has progressed beyond the need to restrict students from expressing their identities, especially at an age where identities are being solidified and molded. Universities must catch on and change for their students rather than cost them their learning by forcing them to live in primitive and backward rules.
Article: Christian John P. Argallon
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