The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines hosted a dinner forum with LGBT advocacy groups on The Struggle for LGBT Equality in the U.S. on Friday, May 27, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. in the Botero Dali Room, Sulo Riviera Hotel, Quezon City. The speaker for the event was Ms. Christine Sun, former senior counsel, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation.


Some of us from Filipino Freethinkers were there to attend and discuss LGBT rights issues with Babaylan and other LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) advocacy groups.



Mike from the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy introduced our speaker for the evening, Ms. Christine Sun, who was a former senior counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation. Topics of her speech included a brief timeline of LGBT rights in the U.S., its political progress and legal progress, current LGBT issues and ongoing challenges for the LGBT community. Then she answered some questions from the audience. The discussions were lively and passionate, as it included issues such as the suspected rash of hate crimes that are on the rise in Metro Manila.


Afterwards, during dinner, we got to talk more with our speaker and other LGBT advocates about the current issues in the country, and our plans of action. I got to meet a lot of great, passionate people.


One of us from FF got to interview Ms. Sun for a newspaper article.

Here’s wishing all of us good luck in our endeavors.

Online resources:

• American Civil Liberties Union: LGBT Rights – http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights
• American Civil Rights Institute – http://www.acri.org
• American Civil Rights Union – http://www.theacru.org
• American History: Civil Rights Movement – http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civilrights/Civil_Rights_Movement.htm
• Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation – http://www.glaad.org
• Gender Education and Advocacy – http://www.gender.org
• Human Rights Campaign – http://www.hrc.org
• The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights: Indigenous Peoples – http://www.civilrights.org/indigenous
• Legal Information Institute: Civil Rights – http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Civil_rights
• LGBT Census Fact Sheet – http://2010.census.gov/partners/pdf/factSheet_General_LGBT.pdf
• Majority Rule/Minority Rights: Essential Principles – http://www.democracyweb.org/majority/principles.php
• National Center for Transgender Equality – http://www.nctequality.org
• National Civil Rights Museum – http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org
• Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism – http://www.ninrac.org
• Rights of Indigenous People of the U.S. – http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/treaties.htm
• Teaching with Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/
• Timeline of LGBT History – http://www.ct.gov/dcf/lib/dcf/wmv/pdf/timeline_of_lgbt_history.pdf
• Transgender Law and Policy Institute – http://www.transgenderlaw.org
• UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center – http://www.lgbt.ucla.edu/
• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights – http://www.usccr.gov/
• We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement – http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/
• The White House Issues: Civil Rights – http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/civil-rights