The group, led by chair Danton Remoto, recently registered as a party-list organisation at the office of the Commission on Elections in
Manila.
“We have no voice in Congress because nobody dares to admit they are gay,” Remoto revealed in a published interview, stressing that while a number of gays occupy congressional seats, they do not represent the gay community for fear of being ‘outed.’
Global LGBT Political Developments
According to Wikipedia, “publicly gay politicians have attained numerous government posts, even in countries that had sodomy laws or outright mass murder of gays in their recent past.”
Most of these developments however have taken place in Western countries.
Gay British politicians include former UK Cabinet Ministers Chris Smith (now Lord Smith of Finsbury who is also a rare example of an openly HIV positive statesman), Nick Brown and most famously, Peter Mandelson, a European Commissioner and close friend of Tony Blair. Openly gay Per-Kristian Foss was the Norwegian Minister of Finance until September of 2005.
André Boisclair (born April 14, 1966) is a politician in Quebec, Canada. He is the leader of the Parti Québécois, the main Quebec sovereigntist and social democratic party in Quebec.
Timeline:
1950 Communist agitator Harry Hayes abandons wife and 2 children to become a homosexual activist to fight for the repeal of sodomy laws in USA.
1969 Stonewall gay bar riot against police in the United States marks beginning of “Gay Pride”
1974-- Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly gay or lesbian American elected to public office, when she wins a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan city council. Ohio repeals sodomy laws. Robert Grant founds American Christian Cause to oppose the "gay agenda," the beginning of the modern Christian Right in America.
1975—Elaine Noble becomes the second out American elected to public office, when she wins a seat in the Massachusetts State House.
1977—Harvey Milk is elected city-county supervisor in San Francisco, becoming the third out American elected to public office. Dade County, Florida enacts a Human Rights Ordinance; it is repealed the same year after a militant anti-gay-rights campaign led by Anita Bryant. Quebec becomes the first jurisdiction larger than a city or county in the world to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the public and private sectors.
1999, an Anti-Discrimination Billis proposed in the Philippine House of representatives. It hope to criminalise discriminatory policies and practices on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity to protect and promote the equal human rights and fundamental freedoms of Filipino LGBTs.
2006- Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Chile meet for the first time the issue of sexual orientation and gender identity
Sources:
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual#Political_developments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_LGBT_history
Ang Ladlad was formed in September 2003 . It is the first avowed LGBT political party in Asia and possibly the world to aim to run for legislative seats in the Philippines.
The name Ladlad, as the group’s official website explains, refers to the act of “unfurling the cape that used to cover one's body as a shield…to come out of the closet, to assert one's human rights as equal to that of the next Filipino. Thus, it means to take one's place in the sun, with dignity intact”.
Remoto also stressed that although Filipinos are generally tolerant to homosexuality, gays, lesbians and bisexuals still suffer from various forms of discrimination.
"Tolerance does not equate to acceptance and equality. A lot of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders have to endure everyday assaults to their dignity in form of hurtful words, laughter or malicious actions."
Below are the programs and platforms of Ang Ladlad:
- Re-filing of the Anti-Discrimination Bill that gives LGBT Filipinos equal opportunities in employment and equal treatment in schools, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, entertainment centers, and government offices;
- Re-filing of the bill to repeal the Anti-Vagrancy Law that some unscrupulous policemen use to extort bribes from gay men without ID cards;
- Setting up of micro-finance and livelihood projects for poor and handicapped LGBT Filipinos;
- Setting up of centers for Golden Gays, or old and abandoned LGBTs, as well as young ones driven out of their homes. The centers will also offer legal aid and counseling, as well as information about LGBT issues, HIV-AIDS, and reproductive health. These centers will be set up initially in the key cities/metropolitan areas of the Philippines—Baguio, Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao.
"We will be reaching out to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders and fight for their rights so that they would no longer be afraid to admit their sexual preference." Remoto said.
Visit Ang Ladlad’s official website at http://www.geocities.com/angladlad/ or their newsblog at http://community.livejournal.com/ang_ladlad/. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sources:
“To be, or not to be” by Jessica Zafra. The Standard. Saturday, July 29, 2006
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/weekend_news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=23854&sid=8884728&con_type=3&d_str=20060729
Ang Ladlad Official site http://www.geocities.com/angladlad/
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Gay_rights_group_to_join_Philippine_09162006.html
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/man/2006/09/17/news/bishops.back.gays.desire.to.get.congress.seat.html
The 
we!
WiA 
Isis Resource Center holds one of the largest feminist collections of materials in the Global South. With 40 years of publication experience, Isis holds a vast collection.