Equality Philippines

In the spate of gay killings in the past few weeks, members and leaders of MCCQC, ProGAY-QC, SGO-Phils, OUTPhils, GABAY, IFTAS and other concerned LGBT groups and formations are joining forces in monitoring and documenting murder cases or hate crimes against us, not just the ones covered by media, but all. Documenting these cases would provide our legislators ammunition to pass the Anti-Discrimination Bill pending in congress as well as lobbying for an Anti-Hate Crime Bill. We make this call to everyone: If you have heard or known of a murder or homicide case or any incident of violence which the LGBT community is targeted please send us the following information at the MCCQC e-mail mccqc@ymail.com or if you are a member of any of the participating organizations mentioned in this letter, contact your community leaders: 1. Name of the Victim 2. Age of the Victim 3. Profession of the Victim 4. Date of Crime 5. Circumstances how they were killed and how they were found 6. Notes or other i...

I just read from someone's email in a community mailing group that it seems that the "serial killer" who has been targeting gay men and who has not yet been apprehended by police has struck again. Around three to four years ago, if I'm not mistaken, several gay men were found dead via multiple stab wounds in their apartments around the Quezon City area. The victims included a fashion designer, TV producer, hair stylist and many others. There were rumors that have remained unconfirmed until now that one of the killer's victims was, in fact, a priest. The serial killer angle came to a head when one of the alleged victims' stories was solved. That person was someone I knew personally: Larry Estandarte. Larry was one of the founding members of the University of the Philippines (UP) Babaylan, the first LGBT students' organization in the UP system. By the time I became a member of UP Babaylan, Larry was already one of our alumni members and had long been working...

Book Review on Canadian English Professor Michael Cobb's book "God Hates Fags". This post was written by RBP team member line of flight from Sampaloc Toc . I want to start off this review by unequivocally stating that I do not recommend buying or reading this book . I hesitated writing this review at first, but I decided I wanted to tell you what was so disappointing and my expectations for research into the discourse of anti-gay right-wing Christian fundamentalism. Michael Cobb is an English Professor at the University of Toronto and is a very angry gay man. I picked this book up with the idea that it would be an update to Didi Herman's The Anti-Gay Agenda with a focus on the upsurge in media attention to Fred Phelps "God Hates Fags" church. The book does provide a little bit of research into the history of Fred Phelps church of hate. However, I'd recommend Ryan Jones' documentary Fall from Grace -- which includes unprecedented access to Fred Ph...

I just saw on the Questioning Transphobia website that the Angie Zapata murder trial has already produced a verdict. For details on Angie's case, visit the LGBT Hate Crimes clearinghouse here . Angie Zapata (shown in the picture above) was an 18 year old trans woman who was found brutally murdered in her own apartment in Greeley, Colorado sometime in July last year. The suspect in her killing, Allen Ray Andrade, 31, was put on trial recently and his jury found him guilty on four counts: first degree murder, bias motivated crime, aggravated motor vehicle theft, and ID theft. Andrade gets mandatory life without parole for the first count. Sentencing on the other counts will happen on May 8. Angie was one of the people honored in last year's Transgender Day of Remembrance . LGBT activists in the US have been anticipating the outcome of her murderer's trial because a hate-crime law was being used to prosecute him. The verdict above makes it clear that the jury accepts Angie...