Below is an open letter of Sass Rogando Sassot, a transgender woman, who experienced discrimination at one bar in Makati.
PEOPLE LIKE US
An Open Letter of a Transgender Woman in the Philippines
[25 May 2008 / Sunday / 6.04 AM to 6.45 AM]
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor Roosevelt
My friends and I have been made to feel inferior approximately five
hours before I wrote this letter. I’d like to sweep this incident under
the proverbial rug but there is no more space to accommodate it.
On the 24th of May 2008, my friends and I were celebrating the
anniversary of our organization the Society of Transsexual Women of the
Philippines (STRAP), the first transsexual women’s support group and
transgender rights advocacy organization in the Philippines. We settled
to celebrate it in Ice Vodka Bar, located in Greenbelt 3, 3rd level
Ayala Center, Makati City, Metro Manila. It was my first time in that
bar. Two in our group have been there before and they had nothing bad
to say about it.
There were five of us. I was leading the way. The bouncer stopped
us. I asked why. His reason was we were dressed “inappropriately”. We
were rather dressed decently, tastefully, and most importantly just
like any other human being who lives her life as female 24 hours a day.
I asked for the manager. The bouncer was nice enough to let me in.
The manager, Ms Belle Castro, accommodated me. I don’t know if I
spelled her name right. I asked for a business card but she had none
available. Her telling feature though was her braced teeth.
I complained. Ms Castro listened to me. I found her sympathetic,
even respectful as she addressed me all throughout as ma’am. She told
me the following:
1. (Referring to my friends, and obviously to me) That “people like
them” aren’t allowed in our bar every Fridays & Saturdays;
2. That that was an agreement between all the bars in Greenbelt (she
particularly mentioned their bar, Absinthe, and Café Havana) and Ayala
Corporation, the company which owns the Greenbelt Complex;
3. That the reason for this policy is: “Marami kasing foreigner na
nag-kocomplain at napepeke daw sila sa mga katulad nila.” Loosely
translated in English: “There are lots of foreigners complaining
because they mistake people like them as real women”; and
4. That they have a “choice” to implement the policy.
I felt terribly hurt and uncontrollably agitated. This transphobic
act is not the first time that it happened to me, to my friends, to
people like us. To say that this has become almost a routine is an
understatement.
I have shouted at Ms Castro several times, asking her why I’m
f***ing experiencing racism in my own country and what gave f***ing
foreigners the right to demand to block people like us to enter bars in
our very own country.
Ms Castro tried to hush me by pulling the “It’s our choice card” and
asked me to talk decently. I am not proud at all of using the F-word as
my intensifier and of letting my emotions ran raw and wild. My warm
apologies to Ms Castro for losing my cool. Just like any of us, I know,
she was just doing her job.
This may not be the proper forum to raise this concern. But is there
any reliable legal forum to address this issue? Reality check: there is
no antidiscrimination law in this country. And if you’re discriminated,
there seems to be a notion that you’re supposed to blame yourself for
bringing such an unfortunate event to yourself.
So, I’d just stand up through this open letter.
I am standing for myself. I am standing for people like us. I am
standing up because I, am, very, tired of this incivility. We have long
endured this kind of treatment for far too long. Enough.
I’ll not go as far as campaigning for a boycott as it is definitely
the simple workers that would suffer from any loss in revenue such an
act may cause.
People like us would like to be treated just like any other human
being. Just like those foreigners who complained about our existence:
With dignity.
You know the civilized and ethical thing to do: Stop discrimination in your establishments.
Bigotry is never ethical nor a sound business strategy.
Warmly,
Ms Sass Rogando Sasot
Sass is one of the founding members of the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP) [www.tsphilippines.com], an Associate Member of Transgender ASIA Research Centre, and a member of Ang Ladlad Party.
But the world is not all that bad and there are still good people
out there who have even just a tinge of humanity in them. Thanks to
formal and educated communication employed by Ms. Sassot, a lot of good
developments regarding this case have taken place. And that’s all in a
matter of less than a week.
