Lack of Pride: Under-reporting gender issues

JUNE IS Pride month, dedicated to remember and highlight the Stonewall uprising in 1969 which is regarded as a catalyst for the popular struggle to assert queer rights. Sadly this year, the memorial month saw the murder of two transwomen in the Philippines. 

On June 23, Ali Macalintal, a human rights defender and a former broadcaster, was gunned down in a spa clinic in General Santos City where she had worked, while student Kierra Apostol was found lifeless in a river in Cagayan.

These murder cases received media attention from traditional and online news media. News accounts from ABS-CBN News Online and Bulatlat reported the reactions of human rights groups of which Macalintal was a previous member. Reports from the Daily Tribune, The Manila Times, and The Philippine Daily Inquirer noted Macalintal’s previous activism and media work as possible motives for her murder.

While the media picked up the reports, the coverage was more focused on Macalintal’s case and the report of the crime itself, with only a few news accounts looking into the gender element in the murder cases. A report from the Inquirer included the recommendation of the Human Rights Watch for authorities to consider gender identity as a motive in Macalintal’s murder.  

Remembering their names

The violent death of the two transwomen during the Pride month was condemned by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). ABS-CBN News Online, Manila Bulletin, News5, and Manila Standard picked up the statement of the Gender Ombud and called attention to the pattern of transfemicide, or the gender-based killing of transgender women, which has been noted by the CHR following the similar murder cases involving transwomen.  

The deaths of Macalintal and Apostol are two of four cases of transgender killings recorded so far. Earlier this year, Ren Tampus was shot dead in her beauty salon in January; and Shalani Dolina was found dead, her body dismembered in February. 

LGBTQ+ protection

With the recent killings of members of the LGBTQ+ community, queer groups called for the immediate passing of bills that seek to end gender-based crimes and discrimination. 

Bulatlat and Rappler, on June 26 and July 4, respectively, published articles about the importance of legislation to protect the LGBTQ+ community from violence. 

Dominic Gutoman of Bulatlat cited Reyna Valmores Salinas of Bahaghari, who said that the lack of legal protection leaves the group vulnerable to discrimination and danger.  

Rappler’s report by Joan Alindongan cited several organizations pushing for transgender rights, specifically the bill allowing transgenders to change their names and gender markers. The report said that the lack of recognition of transgender identities results in social exclusion and violence against the transgender community. 

Pride is a protest, the expression of which does not start nor end in June. Gender issues should be reported and discussed as a serious public concern, noting the vulnerability of the LGBTQIA+ community to violence. 

There is a need for reporting on the LGBTQIA+ that helps the audience understand the broad human experience that includes members who are relegated to the margins or treated as invisible. Limiting coverage to cases of violence and crime reflects a serious editorial fault that perpetrates stereotypes about LGBTQs that irreparably damage the public mind. 

Instead, as the news in general opens windows to different realities, the media should proactively include the trans community in the mainstream of news, enlarging the public’s view of life and reality in its fullness.