Ladlad ( Tagalog for "

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

," "The Unfurled", from the

swardspeak Swardspeak (also known as gay speak or "gay lingo") is an argot or cant slang derived from Taglish (Tagalog-English code-switching) and used by a number of LGBT people in the Philippines. Description Swardspeak uses elements from Tagalog, English ...

''pagladlad ng kapa'' unfurling one's cape), formerly Ang Ladlad LGBT Party Inc. and sometimes colloquially known as "the LGBT party", is a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

(

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

) political party. It was founded on September 1, 2003, by

Danton Remoto Danton Relato Remoto (born March 25, 1963) is a Filipino writer, essayist, reporter, editor, columnist, and professor. Remoto received the first prize at the ASEAN Letter-Writing Contest for Young People. The award earned Remoto a scholarship ...

. The party's official motto is "''Bukas isip. Bukas puso.''" (Open mind. Open heart.)

History

Ladlad first tried to register with the

Commission on Elections An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

(COMELEC) in 2006, with the hopes of appearing on the 2007 ballot, but was denied for supposedly not having enough members. COMELEC further denied Ladlad's petition to be allowed to run in the 2010 elections, this time on the grounds of "immorality". However, on January 12, 2010, the Supreme Court granted a

temporary restraining order An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in par ...

, thereby allowing Ladlad to participate in the 2010 elections. On April 8, 2010, the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

overturned the ban in the case of ''Ang Ladlad v. COMELEC'' (G.R. No. 190582), allowing Ladlad to join the elections. The party received 113,187 votes or 0.37% (excluding votes from

Lanao del Sur Lanao del Sur ( tl, Timog Lanao; Maranao and ilp, Pagabagatan Ranao), officially the Province of Lanao del Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The capital is the city of ...

), below the optional 2% threshold and was not able to win a seat in Congress. In the 2013 elections, the party also failed to reach the minimum two percent of votes cast barring the party from running in the 2016 elections. The party did not enter the 2019 race, despite being qualified to.

Programs and platforms

The organization's goals are focused toward

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

, and the organization fights for equal rights among all Filipinos, whether they are LGBT or not. Ladlad has the following platforms: #to pass an anti-discrimination bill that would guarantee LGBT Filipinos equal opportunities and treatment; #funding employment opportunities and welfare programs for impoverished and disabled LGBT Filipinos; #setting up of centers for LGBT youth and seniors in need of protection.

Same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

is not part of the party's platform, although it would add it if it were to achieve the passage of its desired anti-discrimination bill.

Popularity

The party's low popularity is seen as being due to the country's opposing influential Catholic figures who oppose Ladlad's goals and congressional bid. Recent trends, however, have lessened the percentage of Filipinos who closely follow traditional Catholic teachings, and LGBT causes have gotten more visibility in the country as can be seen by the huge influx of attendees of

pride parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...

s, such as the Metro Manila Pride March, which more than 70,000 attended in 2019. While more Filipinos are coming out, some scholars caution that this isn't the best way to gauge the prevalence of LGBT people, as Filipino culture may view coming out as "gratuitous", "excessive", and "American".

Electoral performance

*Parties that didn't win for two consecutive elections are barred from running in the next immediate election.

References

{{Philippine political parties LGBT organizations in the Philippines LGBT political parties Liberal parties in the Philippines Political parties established in 2003

History

Programs and platforms

Popularity

Electoral performance

See also

References