Geraldine Roman slams SOGIE Bill critic who asked if ‘pedophilia, necrophilia’ part of ‘LGBTQ++’

Bataan First District Rep. Geraldine Roman on Wednesday shut down lawyer Lyndonn Cana of Coalition of Concerned Families of the Philippines (CCFP) for asking “if legal limitation of right to sexual orientation” in the nomenclature LGBTQ++ included pedophilia and necrophilia.

At a House committee hearing on Wednesday, where committee members voted on whether or not to adopt the third reading copy of the 17th Congress of the working draft SOGIE Bill, Cana voiced out his objections to the bill.

“We do not support a threat for the LGBT community, we do not condone any insult or disrespect of them, however we do have very serious objections and opposition to the bill both in its concepts and its provisions which we are very respectfully submitting to this committee for its thoughtful and prayerful reconsideration,” he said.

Cana cited the lack of mention of the straight community in SOGIE Bill, saying it gave special privileges to the LGBTQ community.

“Now in under SOGIE, talo si gender kay gender identity. We would want to raise a question, what is in the bill for the straight community, what are the rights, do they also have feelings, do they also have orientation and identity and expression?” Cana said.

Cana also questioned the nomenclature “LGBTQ++,” asking “what’s the legal limitation of the right to sexual orientation” and if it included “pedophilia and necrophilia.”

“The fact that LGBTQ in many of the documents merong ‘+’ or ‘++,’ ang question when will this end, when will the orientation end, what’s the legal limitation of the right to sexual orientation, for example if an old man is attracted to very young children, sexual orientation na ’yun, pedophilia ’yun, so included din ba ’yan sa fundamental human right? How about those who are sexually attracted to the dead, necrophilia, so included ba din ’yan sa LGBTQ++?” he asked.

Roman spoke against each of his objections, saying everyone had SOGIE, even Cana himself.

“If you’re worried about SOGIE, everyone has SOGIE, kahit po kayo attorney, you have sexual orientation, you are straight and your gender identity is apparently male and that is also your expression,” she said.

“Just in case ma-discriminate kayo dahil straight kayo o mapagkamalan kayong bakla you can use this bill,” Roman added.

Roman said “we already have two laws that actually define what sexual orientation and gender identity and expression is.”

“We have RA 11313 which is a Safe Spaces Act, diyan po malinaw kung ano ang sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, at ang LGBTI. We also have the HIV Law, which is RA 11166, so huwag na po kayong mag-alala diyan,” she added.

Roman also told the committee that “nothing in this bill will stop you from thinking that I am a sinner or that an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.”

“But of course pagdating po sa karapatang magtrabaho, karapatang mag-aral, tumanggap ng serbisyo mula sa pamahalaan o makapasok sa pampublikong lugar o facilities na walang diskriminasyon, ibang usapan na po ’yan,” she added.

Cana also objected to the penalty price, saying the penalty for those who violate the SOGIE Bill was too high.

To which Roman replied, “so nagrereklamo kayo, natataasan kayo sa penalty, bakit magkano ba ang dignidad ng tao, napepresyuhan ba ’to? Hindi naman po ’di po ba?”

“Eh kung anak niyo kaya ang diniscriminate, I’m sure hindi kayo matutuwa na Php 20,000 lang ang dangal ng inyong anak,” she added.

Roman said she felt insulted that Cana kept on saying “that you support us, you love us, but you don’t recognize our rights. What kind of love is that? That’s hypocrisy.”

“Liwanagan ko lang ulit, this is not a gender recognition law, this is not a same-sex marriage law, this will in no way suppress your right to religious freedom,” she added.

Roman asked Cana to “focus on what it is—it is an antidiscrimination law.”

Roman also said Cana should stop saying the SOGIE Bill gave the LGBTQ community special privileges.

“What is so special about the right to study, the right to work, my God, napaka-basic rights lang ’yan that all Filipinos should be enjoying, LGBT man o hindi,” she stated.

“Pero the sad fact of the matter is that maraming LGBT na pinagkakaitan ng karapatan na mga ito na tinatawag niyo na special privileges,” she added.

At the latter part of her statement, Roman told Cana not to tell the community he loved them, “just call me an abomination and a sinner, just tell me straight up."

“And that I deserve to be punished here on earth and that papahirapan niyo ang buhay ko. Huwag na tayong magplastikan,” she added.

Cana said he did not “wish to argue with a good representative. I am aware that a resource person cannot argue with a member of the House.”

Cana also asked for a copy of the transcript of record of the proceedings.

He also stated for the record that he was not “a bringer of false information,” explaining that there was “no UN declaration on human rights that mentions even SOGIE.”

Roman additionally told Cana: “I hope this is the last time I hear about necrophilia and pedophilia. How dare you? This is the House of Representatives. How can we legislate those?”

When it was Sister Mary John Mananzan’s time to speak as one of the resource persons, she reiterated that religion is not supposed to be used to justify discrimination.

Philippine Commission on Women lawyer Zyyra Cuevas said, “the concern that ‘++’ extends to necrophilia and pedophilia is misplaced, given that the subject of attraction in such cases are obviously incapable of consent.”

Commission on Human Rights resource person Twyla Rubin also said that “there is already a UN Special Rapporteur on SOGI, SOGI is also recognized in various treaty bodies in their views and decisions. There are several resolutions of the UN recognizing discrimination against LGBT.”

At the vote of 20-32, the House moves to adopt the third reading copy of the 17th Congress of the working draft SOGIE Bill. – RC, GMA News