The March Towards Gender Equality.

Image from Google

“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance,” is the belief of Kofi Annan in relation to gender equality. It is a belief of Annan which signifies the importance of achieving such type of equality in the globalized world. However, why is it that gender equality continues to develop even though several countries try to fend it off? What are the primary reasons why these people who belong to a certain community continue to experience things such as discrimination, unequal opportunities, and lack of support from both the state and its people?

This community of which I mentioned is called the LGBT or the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trangender people of society. They are a group of individuals who continually strive for equal rights and liberties from the government as they are not provided by the law specific rights in accordance to their preferred sexual orientation.

Furthermore, they also fight for gender equality and for issues such as same – sex marriages, especially in the United States of America. Talking about the U.S., President Barack Obama, incumbent President of the United States, fully supports the LGBT Community. He said, in a quote taken from the Official Website of the White House, “We’ve got a lot of hard work that we still have to do, but we can already point to extraordinary progress that we’ve made... on behalf of Americans who are gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender.”

In relation to what President Obama stated, we still have a lot of things to iron out in resolving the issues between the LGBT Community and the common people. It is because, currently, there are a lot of killings, tortures, and more which involves the LGBT people. An example would be in Mexico wherein during the years 2001 to 2009, the estimated killings of homosexuals reached 60 in comparison to the 30 average killings from the years 1995 to 2000.

Because of this, it is important that we look upon the issues and reasons which cause these “evil” things to occur. Here in the Philippines, some analyze that it is a result of the lack of laws that are passed in Congress to protect the rights of the LGBT. Some think that it revolves around gender discrimination which happens in every corner of the country, while others believe that it is a product of ethnocentrism between gender and culture of people. In entirety, we can assume that gender equality is a product of gender discrimination, lack of laws, and ethnocentrism.

As we have already pointed out three possible causes for gender equality, we should further expound these reasons one by one.

First, gender discrimination has branched out multiple problems in our society, especially in the fields of work, education, housing, healthcare and more. An example of this is in 34 states in the U.S., it is still perfectly legal for lesbian and gay employees to be fired simply because their employers discover, and disapprove of, their sexual orientation.

Furthermore, according to the most recent hate crime statistics, roughly 15% of bias-motivated crimes are committed on the basis of perceived sexual orientation. These evidences prove that the LGBT people have experienced great discrimination through the years.

Second, the laws in the Philippines focusing on Gender Equality are not thoroughly carried or executed by the Filipinos. Although we have the “Anti-Gender Discrimination Act”, which is an act that prohibits discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, the LGBT people feel that their civil liberties are still suppressed. In the latest Social Institutions and Gender Index survey, the Philippines’ Civil Liberties Sub Index is at a low, specifically 1 out of 122. This tells us that although we have laws, the LGBT still has a trouble in exercising their rights.

In addition, liberties which equate to issues such as same-sex marriage have also been tackled. One example of a country which has implemented this law is New York City, which is currently the largest state to have passed this law. It goes to show that the Legislative Branch of the United States respect the civil liberties of the people, whether or not they are part of the LGBT community. In the Philippines, however, the issue on same sex marriage is still vague considering that topics such as the Reproductive Health Bill and the Divorce Bill has not yet been passed.

Lastly, we have to deal with the ethnocentric view of some people towards the LGBT community. In definition, ethnocentrism is the “thinking of one’s own group as superior towards others.” Being ethnocentric is bad because we create false images or assumptions to a certain group, like the LGBT, and judge them continually up until the extent of using forceful means to eliminate if some may think of it in that perspective.

Moreover, there are some who treat these people with disrespect as they think of them as a lower form of humanity. Although some might disagree, the mere fact that there are people in places such as Mexico who kills gay people signifies that those people treat the LGBT as if they were a lesser form of being human; a reality which must be resolved as soon as possible.

In conclusion, one must admit that what Obama said is true; the path towards resolving this problem about the LGBT community is still a long way to go. We must do our best to solve this issue hand in hand together with the government and the people. The value of respect must be highly regarded by all sectors because giving respect is one of the few steps we can do as individuals to create a better society.

Indeed, the road towards gender equality might be rough and winding, but as long as the end goal is clear, no one can stop us from achieving such a goal worthy of praise.

Image from Google