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Sister Mary John Mananzan tells SOGIE Bill critics not to use religion to justify discrimination


During the House committee hearing on Wednesday on SOGIE Bill, Gabriela chairperson Sister Mary John Mananzan said “religion should not be used to justify discrimination.”

She said doing so was “against what religion is all about.”

She also said “when you are saying you are defending the rights of a certain group of people, it doesn’t mean that you are justifying everything that they will do.”

Mananzan stated senior citizens as an example. “I mean you respect the rights of senior citizens but it doesn’t mean all senior citizens will never do anything wrong and therefore anything that they do we are also agreeing with.”

She said what the bill was trying to say was “that LGBTQ people have the right to have all the rights that the citizens of all in the country have and what is wrong with that, shouldn’t we really respect the right of human beings?”

She also clarified that the bill “does not say that if I respect the right of human beings I will say that even if he murders or if he’s having an extra marital affair that ah yeah, that’s OK, because no that’s not what it means.”

Mananzan said regardless what group of people one belonged to, anyone “can commit crimes and commit sins and can commit whatever and that is going to be condemned.”

“But what the law is saying is that whatever you are, you are a human being and so all the rights belong to this human being, must be recognized in all, as in all human beings,” she added.

She pointed out how she received hate comments from trolls after she spoke at a Senate hearing regarding the SOGIE (sexual orientation and gender identity and expression) Bill.

“They are saying na I am justifying everything SOGIE people are doing,” she said. “I am not saying that, I am just saying that they have all the rights that everybody is enjoying and I don’t see any reason why anybody would be against that.”

“And especially as a sister I always say that I believe in the dignity of  every person and therefore all of us who are made to the image and likeness of God and everybody is, no matter what your sexual orientation, is you deserve respect because are made to the image and likeness of God.”

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.

Mananzan spoke in the middle of a heated exchange between Bataan First District Rep. Geraldine Roman and lawyer Lyndonn Cana of Coalition of Concerned Families of the Philippines. – RC, GMA News

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