Written and Photo by Caster John Tabora
In efforts to shatter the stigma and discrimination on gender identity, the UST Cisco Networking Academy Gateway Engineering (UST-CNAG) spearheaded the webinar entitled Breaking the Stigma: A Webinar on Gender Identity and Gender Expression, last April 23, 2022, via Zoom Meeting.
Asst. Prof. Amante R. Garcia, MS, the UST-CNAG adviser, gave his opening remarks as the event commenced. This was followed by the introduction of the event’s first speaker, Cindy Cruz-Cabrera, the Gender and Development Officer of the University of the Philippines Diliman Gender Office.
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and human rights,” Ms. Cabrera uttered as she expressed that human rights are an important perspective in tackling gender. She then proceeded in defining the common terms and discussing what gender means in people’s lifestyles.
Cindy Cruz-Cabrera also tackled stigma and discrimination in depth. To end her talk, she reminded everyone that “Gender equality and women empowerment [are] good for everyone so we should champion this, and we should live it in our everyday actions and everyday lives.”
Afterward, Justin Castro Bionat, the Executive Director of the Youth Voices Count, Inc. and a board member of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOT) Committee, stressed the importance of intersectionality in our society.
“The solution to [a] social problem is not just your issue but [the] issue of the whole community, the whole society, together,” Bionat said. He believes that if institutions transition to an inclusive environment, they could be instrumental in creating safe spaces for LGBTIQ people.
The last speaker of the event, Latrell Felix, the Co-Convenor of UP Kalipunan Para sa Kasarian (UP KASARIAN), Gender Councilor of the UP Diliman University Student Council, and the Chairperson of Bahaghari UP Diliman, talked about how patriarchy and sexism are prevalent in today’s society.
Latrell also emphasized how critical voting for the right candidates is, to hear the call of the women and LGBTQIA+ of protecting them. She also stressed that “While we break the stigma, we should also collectively struggle in breaking the system, that is the root cause of the oppression of women, LGBTQIA+ and other gender minorities.”
An open forum was conducted after the guest speakers shared their thoughts and advocacies. This was followed by the awarding of certificates for the guest speakers and was formally concluded through the closing remarks of Alyssa Ragodon, the project head of the event and the Internal Vice President of UST-CNAG.
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