00:00In the United States, there's recently been a surge of support for the LGBT community.
00:05Specifically, the transgender community has become much more visible than ever.
00:11But in the Philippines, the trans community has always been visible
00:15and is deeply ingrained in Filipino culture.
00:19The best thing to be accepted is to be yourself.
00:22As we will discover, the trans community is in need of much more than just visibility.
00:27We are not legally acknowledged and we are not legally protected.
00:33If being acknowledged is the first step, what is next?
00:44So we just arrived in the Philippines.
00:47We're going to meet with a community of trans women.
00:50The transgender woman here is celebrated, often through beauty pageants actually.
00:54Though she does not have political and legal representation and she definitely does not have equality.
01:00Our first stop is to meet up with Mackie, a transgender beauty queen turned activist from Cebu.
01:05Cheers!
01:06Cheers to me in the Philippines.
01:08Welcome to the Philippines.
01:10Can you share with us sort of what trans women are fighting for in the Philippines?
01:15I have so many things to fight for, but I personally would go for gender recognition.
01:20What does that mean, gender recognition?
01:23You will be legally acknowledged by who you really are regardless of what's between your legs.
01:30Because of the laws currently set in place in the Philippines, Mackie is legally unable to change her gender marker
01:36to female
01:37and is still considered male to anyone who asks for her identification.
01:41This became very real for her when she was denied access to a women's locker room at her fitness center.
01:47The event caused Mackie to take action and she promoted a campaign that spread the message,
01:52my genitalia has nothing to do with my gender identity.
01:55You have to go to a men's locker room.
01:59It's very freaky.
02:00You might feel threatened by men.
02:01It's very scary, yeah.
02:02Has there been any legislation that's been, you know, proposed?
02:05Yes, that's what we are working on right now.
02:07The anti-discrimination bill, which easily and freely identify ourselves and it's legally acknowledged by our country.
02:16Something else I wanted to chat with you about is just the culture of beauty pageants.
02:21I don't know, there's mixed opinions about beauty pageants, particularly in the feminist community,
02:25whether it's a hindrance to female progress.
02:28What is the beauty pageant scene like for the trans community?
02:32I think it's a platform to tell everybody our message.
02:35I am a transgender woman. I wanted to be respected as a woman.
02:39I deserve to be referred as a woman.
02:41Tonight, Mackie has agreed to take us to one of the beauty pageants
02:45so we can get a closer look at how integrated the trans community is in Filipino culture.
02:50Hi!
02:52This is where I started.
02:56It's beautiful.
02:58Beautiful? So ornate.
03:01Good luck.
03:03There's little kids around every single world.
03:07All these cars are going by, it's like changing backstage,
03:09and what they're doing and what they're about is one with me culture.
03:21Good evening, mabuhay ladies, gentlemen, and in between to stand in front of you.
03:27I may not be perfectly beautiful, but I am happy because I am perfectly mean.
03:38They have such a great sisterhood.
03:40Yeah, they're so, I mean, they're so supportive.
03:43Even that is very different from how you think of pageant culture.
03:46They're competing but not really.
03:48Yeah.
03:49You know, it's like a celebration.
04:03Morning.
04:04Do you have mango?
04:05Mango?
04:06Yeah.
04:10We're getting the mango hook up.
04:11This one's got the fresh mango.
04:15Look at all this mango.
04:17Oh, wow.
04:18Lots of mango.
04:21You want the best mango in the Philippines?
04:23There's a mango house.
04:27You want the right?
04:28Yeah.
04:29Today we're on our way to meet up with good friend Gina Rossero,
04:32international activist and model who actually grew up here but lives in the U.S. now,
04:37and so we're excited to explore and understand her perspective of being a transgender activist
04:42both in Eastern culture and Western culture.
04:45Cheers to friendship.
04:46Cheers.
04:46And the other side of the world.
04:49So we got to go to a beauty pageant and you participated in beauty pageants kind of from
04:55a young age.
04:56How has that helped you?
04:57Beauty pageant is so, so important for me.
05:00It took me from nobody in like a little city outside Manila and just took me to the stratosphere.
05:08It's been, I think, a year and a half since you came out to us as being a trans woman.
05:13And then three to four months after that, you spoke at TED.
05:18I was assigned boy at birth based on the appearance of my genitalia.
05:24Today is my real coming out.
05:26I want to do my best to help others live their truth without shame and terror.
05:33I wanted it big and loud.
05:35I felt like I really wanted to use whatever capacity that I could bring a spotlight into
05:41this community, into this identity.
05:44I never had an idea that it would come to this in such a short amount of time.
05:48Gina's TED talk opened many doors for her and allowed her voice to be heard in a multitude
05:53of media outlets.
05:54It even brought her to the White House.
05:56She's the face of Marriott's Love Travels campaign and also started her own non-profit,
06:01Gender Proud, a transgender advocacy and awareness campaign.
06:05Describe more of like the main objectives when you come back to the Philippines and what
06:09you're trying to accomplish here.
06:11It's like, how do we create awareness?
06:13Gina explains that in the Philippines, most people call transgender women bakla, the Filipino
06:20term for gay, and that there isn't an understanding that there is a difference between bakla and
06:26transgender women.
06:27So, she's focusing on educating the transgender community.
06:31We're headed into a workshop that Gina's hosting for the transgender community, where Mackie
06:36will also be speaking.
06:37They're both going to share their perspectives on storytelling and the power of using your
06:42voice for human rights advocacy.
06:44So, this is New York Times.
06:48They have this editorial called Transgender Lives.
06:52My dream is one day, we have this also in the Philippines.
06:57That we can share our story.
06:59Because nobody knows our stories from ourselves.
07:02Gina hopes that members of the Filipino transgender community are willing to speak up,
07:06so that the government will be able to collect the data they need to help push through some
07:11of the legislation that will help the LGBT community.
07:14When we lobby for anti-discrimination, we cannot lobby that to our legislators without data.
07:23And we cannot have data if you will not click for it because you don't know your right.
07:29Kate Montecarlo is known by many as Mother Kate, because of the website she created to advocate for transgender rights.
07:37Trans women are a marginalized sector of the women community.
07:42And that should be addressed.
07:43And we have special needs to be addressed.
07:45Yes.
07:45HIV advocacy is a major issue.
07:49Discrimination in the corporate world.
07:51There are a lot of trans women who don't have work.
07:53Also, Asia is the highest when it comes to transgender murder incidents.
07:57So, right now my concentration is not just educating the community,
08:02but also identifying champions and developing empowering trans leaders so that they can replicate the work.
08:11Yeah, they're two buddies.
08:16Before we leave the Philippines, we're going to stop by Mackie's place to talk to her and her boyfriend, Cyril,
08:21about the new transgender dating website they created called mytranssexualdate.com.
08:27What are some of the negative perceptions or connotations around transgender dating that you're trying to obliterate through this new
08:36site?
08:37The sexual part, really.
08:38That's the most important thing.
08:41Sort of the fetishized idea around?
08:43Yes.
08:44You can say that it sounds obvious, but all the dating sites that catered to transgender women before we started,
08:52they all allowed nudity.
08:54I've been in two other dating sites before.
08:56You get a message one day and then the profile pic is just a male's genitalia?
09:02It is incredibly difficult for transgender women to find work.
09:06So some, not all, are forced to use their sexuality to pay their bills.
09:11This has caused the transgender community to have a stigma that is increasingly hard for them to change.
09:16Transgender women are just any other human beings.
09:19I mean, we find love, we find relationships.
09:23Well, it's clear that the love you guys have for each other and your relationship is a force of strength
09:29for the community.
09:30So kudos to you.
09:36We are wrapping our time up here in the Philippines. How was it for you?
09:41I think one of the things that really hit home for me was learning about the fight for the ultimate
09:48feminine expression.
09:50It's as simple as being recognized for the woman that you are.
09:54It's what we all want.
09:55To be recognized as a multidimensional, nuanced female experience.
10:00Trans women's rights are women's rights.
10:02And actually I feel like it makes more sense to fit the transgender fight under the women's umbrella.
10:07And I can't think of a community more than the transgender community that's fighting more prolifically for gender equality than
10:18they are.
10:19It would free up society. It would be so fun and colorful and diverse and things that benefit everybody.
10:26Love the Philippines.
10:28Other takeaway. Just a note.
