The House Committee on Women and Gender Equality has approved the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, or Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) bill. 

The committee’s approval was confirmed by Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas on Tuesday after panel deliberations. 

“We, in the Gabriela Women’s Party, laud the committee’s approval of the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, or Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) Equality Bill. This is a step towards the long-overdue enactment of  legislation that will prohibit all forms of discrimination and harassment against the LGBTQIA+ community,” Brosas said in a statement. 

“Naninindigan kami na karapatan ng bawat miyembro ng LGBTQIA+ na makatamasa ng pantay na karapatan sa edukasyon, trabaho, serbisyong kalusugan, at iba pa ng walang takot at pangamba,” she added.

The Technical Working Group has consolidated House Bills 222, 460, 3418, 3702, 4277, 5551, 6003 and 7036 – all seeking to prohibit discrimination of any kind against members of the LGTBQIA+ community. 

The consolidated version listed the following as discriminatory and unlawful practices: 

• Advertising, producing, and publishing materials promoting, encouraging, and perpetuating stigma or inciting violence and sexual abuse against any person or group on the basis of SOGIESC;
• Denying access to public services to any person on the basis of SOGIESC;
• Including SOGIESC, as well as the disclosure of one’s SOGIESC, in the criteria for hiring, promotion, transfer, designation, work assignment, re-assignment;
• Refusing admission or expelling a person from any educational or training institution, such as police and military academies or training institutions, on the basis of SOGIESC; and 
• Imposing disciplinary sanctions, penalties harsher than customary or similar punishments, requirements, restrictions, or prohibitions that infringe on the rights of the students on the basis of SOGIESC

The SOGIESC bill has been proposed several times, and the slow pace of the legislative process has drawn concerns from several sectors.

Brosas hopes that both the House and the Senate “heed the call of the Filipino people” by passing the bill seeking to address the “long-standing discrimination against LGBTQIA+ in Philippine society.”