Gretchen Diez meets Imee, Bong Go: Can the fist gesture help realize a SOGIE law?

As Senator Risa Hontiveros was defending the SOGIE bill on the floor, Gretchen Custodio Diez was at the gallery posing for photos with Senator Imee Marcos who approached her. 

Earlier, Senators Manny Pacquiao, Ronald dela Rosa, Miguel Zubiri and Pia Cayetano were also seen having a brief chat with her. 

A post on Senator Bong Go's Facebook account showed a photo with Diez doing the fist gesture outside the session hall. 

Go is known as President Duterte's former special assistant and who remains his constant companion in his trips.

The discrimination experienced by Diez, a transgender woman, when she was refused entry at the ladies room in a mall, and then later on handcuffed and detained, brought the spotlight to the need for a SOGIE law.

The SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression) Equality bill seeks to protect the members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community from discriminatory acts.

After Hontiveros' privilege speech pressing for the need to have a SOGIE law, both Marcos and Go expressed support for its passage.

"We are here to support, full support po tayo sa SOGIE bill," Marcos had said.

Gretchen Diez, the transwoman who figured in a viral video at a Quezon City mall, paid a courtesy call to Sen Imee at the Senate today. The Senator is a known advocate of LGBTQ rights and has, in fact, filed a bill prohibiting discrimination against them. pic.twitter.com/gXqxk0P0qm

— Imee Marcos (@ManangImee) August 14, 2019

Go said, "We are all equal under the law and it is our duty in this institution to ensure that all Filipinos, regardless of their age, sex, religion, ethnicity or gender orientation are treated equally and justly."

Gathering support from across the political spectrum at the Senate, will the bill hurdle resistance and indifference, and finally take off towards passage?  

In her speech, Hontiveros said, "Panahon na para sabihin na hindi tayo papayag na may LGBTQI na poposasan, sasampalin, aalipustahin dahil s akanilang kasarian.  It is time that we say we will stand by those who speak their truths."

"Matagal na tayong pinapagpasensyahan ng mga LGBTQI na mga anak, kapatid, kaibigan at kababayan natin dahil sa ating pagkukulang," she said. —LDF, GMA News