Comelec rejects petition of Ang Ladlad Party
By Sheila Crisostomo

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday
rejected the petition of Ang Ladlad Party, which represents homosexuals,
bisexuals, and transgender individuals, to be registered as a sectoral party
because of "immorality."

In an eight-page resolution, Comelec Second Division presiding commissioner
Nicodemo Ferrer and commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph said Ang
Ladlad's petition is "dismissible on moral grounds."

"(The) Petitioner defines Filipino lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) community (as) marginalized and under-represented sector that is
particularly disadvantaged because of their sexual orientation and gender
identity... and proceeded to define sexual orientation as that which refers
to a person's capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual
attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a
different gender, of the same gender or more than one gender," the
resolution said.

The commission said the definition of the represented sector "makes it
crystal clear that (the) petitioner tolerates immorality which offends
religious beliefs."

The commissioners cited passages from the Bible - Romans 1:26-27 - and the
Koran to illustrate their point.

Romans 1:26-27 reads: "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:
for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is
unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which
was meet."

Comelec said the party's petition also "collides" with Article 694 of the
Civil Code which defines nuisance as "any act... that disregards decency or
immorality" and Article 1306 which provides that "contracts whose cause
object or purpose is contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or
public policy are inexistent and void from the beginning."

The commission said the petition for registration does not conform to the
Catholic faith.

"Should this Commission grant the petition, we will be exposing our youth to
an environment that does not conform to the teachings of our faith. We are
not condemning the LGBT but we cannot compromise the well-being of the
greater number of our people, especially the youth," the resolution said.

Ladlad president Danton Remoto condemned the decision "of the very old men"
who showed "painfully obsolete ideas about homosexuality." - With Rainier
Allan Ronda, Reinir Padua, Katherine Adraneda.

Source:
ostomo