This article spells out the ways in which religious freedom has been deployed against proponents of same-sex marriage and gender equality in the Philippines. While the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and allies have appealed to religious freedom to gain equal rights under the law, conservative Christian entities have fought back by invoking the same notion. They have appropriated religious freedom, which has historically been interpreted by the courts in favour of individual liberties, to defend majoritarian values surrounding sexuality. This article describes this move as the weaponisation of religious freedom in defence of the dominant religion and an assumed majority of Filipinos whose moral sensibilities are purportedly under attack. Towards the end, the article relates this weaponisation to the experience of the Catholic Church in the contemporary public sphere and the militant character of Christianity that continues to view the Philippines as a Christian nation.
See Full PDF See Full PDFThe ever-changing trends in the world brought by the growing ideas and modernization indeed limited the faculty of conservatism. Various actions and styles that were behind the bars before were apparently free and accepted in the society. However, there are still cases where conservatism prevails causing conflicts between the traditionalists and progressive individuals. An exemplar to this is the issue of homosexuality. For the longest years, the issue of gay rights has been subjected to a number of heated debates. Such issue had not only touched the social, religious, and cultural aspects, for it also crossed the boundaries of politics. Currently, the LGBTQ, an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning community, shares the plight for greater social acceptance and their struggle to practice their constitutional rights as humans too. Included in these rights is their right to marriage.Same-sex marriage sparked a long controversy leading to the dividing views of citizensand involved institutions, fervent debates within the social and cultural norms, and the question of being a political issue were prevalent. However, despite these various contentions against same-sex marriage, there were 21 recorded states where gay marriage is legal nationwide. These countries are Netherlands (2000), Belgium (2003), Canada (2005), Spain (2005), South Africa (2006), Norway (2009), Sweden (2009), Argentina (2010), Iceland (2010), Portugal (2010), Denmark (2012), Brazil (2013), England and Wales (2013), France (2013), New Zealand (2013), Uruguay (2013), Luxembourg (2014), Scotland (2014), Finland (signed 2015, effective 2017), Ireland (2015) (Time, 2015). Thus, the issue of same-sex marriage paved the way for debates and researches in several states. As such, this paper attempts to study the possibility of same-sex marriage in the case of one Asian country, particularly the Philippines. The rationale behind this preference originates from the 21 recorded countries where same-sex marriage is legal. And of these 21 countries, none of these is from Asia. The subject matter of this study aims to provide the contrasting views of the involved institutions, particularly the state actors, church, and agents of political socialization in the issue of same-sex marriage. The existence of these varying oppositions relates to the significance of the study. The significance of this study is to determine the influences of state, the church, and other possible agents of political socialization to the legalization of same-sex marriage in case of the Philippines.
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