Manila —Senator Ma. Imelda Josefa “Imee” R. Marcos is seeking to expand the list of punishable acts of discrimination against the LGBT community in Senate Bill 412, which also prescribes measures to preempt such acts. The incident of a transgender woman handcuffed by the police recently after using a women’s toilet at the Araneta Center was “a blatant act of discrimination that defies Quezon City’s Gender-Fair Ordinance and makes me livid,” Ms. Marcos said. “The harassment of LGBT members by law enforcers is a punishable offense in the Senate bill,” she added. By prescribing gender-neutral toilets, as those specially assigned for persons with disabilities, the bill seeks to protect transgender women from public humiliation. Among the punishable offenses against LGBT members that Ms. Marcos added to those in previous bills are the refusal to admit a child in school due to a parent's or guardian's sexual orientation, preventing a child from exhibiting gen...
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