Kahilwayan LGBTQIA+ group kicks off Lavan Letters campaign
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A group of LGBTQIA+ started its Lavan Letters campaign on Friday, November 17, in some parts of Mindanao to support the passage of a bill that seeks to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
A MEMBER of the LGBTQIA+ community marches in Divisoria during the Pride Month celebration in Cagayan de Oro City. (File photo by Rod Constantino, City Information Office)
RJ Neyra, spokesperson for Kahilwayan and chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Initiatives and Movement for Gender Liberation Against Discrimination (IMGLAD), said they have stationed drop box centers where members, supporters, and allies of the LGBTQIA+ community can drop their letters expressing their support for the proposed measure.
In this city, drop boxes are located at four educational institutions – Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, Liceo de Cagayan University, Capitol University, and PHINMA-Cagayan de Oro College.
The group started the campaign earlier in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the second week of this month.
In Iligan City, drop boxes were put up in Barangays Ditucalan and Del Carmen. The group has coordinated with the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology to put up one in the school.
Neyra said they are targeting to collect 100,000 letters in the campaign that will end on November 28. These letters will be sent to senators and congressmen on December 10 to inform them of the community’s efforts to achieve equality.
“(This is for them to know) that there’s a huge (group of people) calling for the passage of the SOGIE Equality Bill,” Neyra said in an interview on Friday, November 17.
Lavan Letters is a national campaign spearheaded by Babaylanes Inc., which has been localized by the group of Neyra, Kahilwayan – a Hiligaynon word that means “freedom.”
The group has coordinated with the city government of Cagayan de Oro to help them deliver the letters to national legislators.
The Kahilwayan spokesperson stressed that the proposed measure should be passed into law, considering the cases of discrimination faced not just by members of the LGBTQIA+ community but also by those who have vulnerable SOGIESC, and would also serve as an extra layer of protection for them.
On April 23, various religious groups in this city as well as in Misamis Oriental staged a prayer rally in Kiosko Kagawasan, Divisoria, to oppose the bill. But the Mindanao Pride group had said that “they will continue to fight for the SOGIE Bill.”
Neyra said religious groups “should have to be educated,” explaining that the SOGIESC bill is not solely for the LGBTQIA+ community but also for “straight men and women who have been possibly discriminated against because of their sex characteristics or gender expressions.”
Kahilwayan urged community members, supporters, and allies, especially those who have been discriminated against because of their SOGIESC, to take part in the campaign by dropping their letters to support the proposed measure.