Transpinay speaks on German panel

20 October 2011 – Naomi Fontanos, chairwoman of the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP) the pioneer human rights advocacy organization of transgender/transsexual Filipinas or transpinays, spoke on a panel called Trans* Rights Are Human Rights organized by the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Berlin, Germany on 5 October 2011, Wednesday (see video below). The panel focused on the initial research findings of the TransRespect Vs TransPhobia (TvT) Project of Transgender Europe (TGEU), which investigates the legal and social situation of transgender people globally.

Talking about transpeople in East and Southeast Asia, Fontanos said "From East Asia to Southeast Asia, transpeople face a similar situation: silenced, excluded and erased. Most transpeople have no say over their identities; their lived realities are belittled and dismissed and state and cultural forces act to render them powerless, with no control over their own lives.”

“Like others elsewhere in the world, transpeople in East and Southeast Asia are coerced to make a choice between a life of dignity and their gender identity as if these two were exclusive of each other,” she added.

The packed auditorium was attended by locals, human rights advocates, and members of the media and the transcommunity in Berlin. In the panel with Fontanos were Carla LaGata and Jan Simon Hutta, the main TvT researchers, Witnes Booysen, Outreach Coordinator of GenderDynamix in South Africa, Tamara Adrian, a lawyer and transactivist from Venezuela, Agniva Lahiri, Executive Director of People Like Us (PLUS) Calcutta, Joleen Mataele, Chairperson of the Pacific Sexual Diversity Network (PSDN) from Tonga and Kristian Randelovic of Transgayten in Serbia. The panel was chaired by Julia Ehrt, co-chair of TGEU.

You can see a video of the panel here.

Filipino transsexuals sue PH for discrimination vs gays at UN

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippines' number one broadsheet.

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—Three Filipino transsexuals have sued the government for discriminating against gays before the United Nations, it was revealed in a forum at the University of the Philippines-Baguio last week.

Lawyer Evalyn Ursua, who represents Naomi Fontanos, Juliana Marian Giessel and Rio Moreno, said her clients still carried Philippine passports that identified them as males, owing to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said the absence of a law regulating sexual reassignments meant that Philippine jurisprudence could not recognize their new gender.

The transsexuals, with the help of Ursua and students in UP-Diliman’s women and development studies program, complained to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last month, urging the world body to compel the Philippine government to issue a law that will recognize their change of sexual identity.

Ursua presented the complaint at a June 24 forum on transgender situation at UP Baguio.

Ursua, who was here for the 5th Baguio Gay Pride celebration, said the suit preempted the UNHRC resolution on June 17 that officially recognized gay rights and commissioned a world report for December that would compile evidence of gay discrimination in member-states like the Philippines.

The document, transmitted by Ursua to the UN on May 23, said: “Their lack of gender-appropriate legal identity has severely restricted their freedom of movement and right to travel.” Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Jocelyn Uy in Manila

STRAP makes history with UN communication

CSWCD, UP Diliman -- The Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP) makes history as they send off a communication to the United Nations (UN) that calls attention to state responsibilities of the Philippine Government as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to pay careful attention to how the justice system updates itself with current developments in international human rights law in its understanding of gender identity through the lived experiences of transsexual women.

The communication aims to put a spotlight on the plight of transpinays (transsexual Filipinas) and their struggle with institutionalized transphobia--the negative attitude towards transgender people that leads to cruelty, abuse and discrimination--as demonstrated by the 2008 Supreme Court (SC) decision that denied a transsexual woman's petition for legal name and sex change. The communication, which highlights the debilitating effects of the the SC decision on the lives of three transpinays--Naomi Fontanos, Juliana Geissel and Rio Moreno--was made possible in collaboration with the Women and Development (WD) Women and the Law class 2010-2011 of the College of Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD) under Atty. Evalyn Ursua.

The communication will be launched and sent off to the UN at the CSWCD grounds at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman at 5:30 pm on 23 May 2011.

STRAP Chairwoman Naomi Fontanos featured in a men’s magazine

A write-up on Naomi Fontanos and the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP) of which she is the current chairwoman is featured in the August issue of UNO Magazine Philippines, a men’s magazine.


In the article, Fontanos discusses her growing up years, the struggles of transpinays (transgender/transsexual Filipinas) and one of the advocacy issues facing the global transgender community, the psychiatric diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder (GID).


Fontanos has been serving STRAP as it chairwoman since 2009 and working with a dedicated team of officers including Vice Chairwoman Rica Paras of Pinoy Big Brother Double Up, Seretary Charlese Saballe, Treasurer Joy Cruz, Membership Coordinator Alessandra N. and Internal Affairs Head Santy Layno to make STRAP an upstanding activist organization.


Her UNO Magazine Philippines feature can be seen here.