Fridae

Former TV show host files gay discrimination suit against Manila restaurant
A former TV show host and comedy bar performer in Manila has filed a civil case against a local restaurant after being turned away as a customer.

On July 4, 2006, Christopher Borja - whose screen name is Inday Garutay - was inside the restaurant with her partner to meet her manager and a producer for a show in Japan when she was reportedly asked to leave the restaurant. The restaurant supervisor allegedly told Borja that the establishment has a dress code and that cross-dressers like her are prohibited from entering the establishment. ("Mayroon po kaming dress code dito. Bawal po ang cross-dresser. Bawal po ang ganyang katulad mo.")

Despite being told that she was in fact already inside the establishment and that the dress code is discriminatory, the restaurant supervisor reportedly insisted that Borja should leave.

According to the Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network-Philippines (LAGABLAB-Pilipinas) website, the complaint asserts that "while private establishments do have the right to impose a dress code, it may not - in the guise of implementing such a dress code - discriminate against individuals on the basis of his or her personal condition, i.e., sexual orientation."

The non-profit, non-partisan aniti-discrimination group believes that such a dress code is blatantly discriminatory and violates basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. It also does not conform to the human relations articles of the Civil Code.

"It's not about money; it's about my rights," said Borja who is asking for P600,000 (US$11,385) for moral and exemplary damages.

"It is not about defending the right to wear a mini-skirt inside an establishment; it is about defending a legitimate life choice," her lawyer, Jae de la Cruz, said.

LAGABLAB has called for the boycott of the establishment because of its discriminatory policies. "The pink peso should not go where lesbians and gays are not wanted," Lagablab secretary-general Jonas Bagas said.

According to Bagas, discriminatory policies against LGBTs are not uncommon. He told Fridae in an interview that some Catholic schools include a 'masculinity test' in their admission exams to screen out "effeminate" students, especially cross-dressers.

"If they flunk the masculinity test, then they are not admitted in schools. However, if they fail the test but have good academic grades, they are accepted - provided that they are under probation for one year." The said tudents are made to sign a 'pink slip' which contains a list of prohibited behaviour such as cross-dressing, wearing earrings and sporting long hair. Violators will be asked to leave the school.

LAGABLAB is also working towards the passage of the Anti-Discrimination Bill, a proposed legislation that criminalises a wide range of policies and practices that discriminate against Filipino LGBTs. The bill has been approved by the House of Representatives during the 12th Congress and is currently pending for approval in the Lower House, while the Senate Committee on Labor still has to act on several versions of the bill in the Senate.

Related site:
lagablab.wordpress.com

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Taiwanese student files suit against parents, hospital for lockup in psychiatric ward
A Taiwanese university student has accused his parents of drugging him by lacing his coffee at breakfast in order to have him committed to a psychiatric ward after he told them he was gay, the Taiwan News reported Tuesday.

The lawsuit filed against the hospital and his parents stated that Su Ming-che was kept against his will in Shin Kong Memorial Hospital's psychiatric ward for 56 days. The 22-year-old charged his parents with interfering with his personal freedom and announced his intention to sever relations with them.

He told reporters on Monday that on April 29 he had breakfast with his parents at a coffee shop when he came drowsy after drinking his coffee. He said that he noticed some white powder on the rim of his coffee cup when he returned from the bathroom but thought nothing of it.

On his way to the hospital, feeling faint, he heard a doctor telling him: "Your father put drugs in your coffee, but it is all for your own good."

He also told the press conference that he was forced by this parents to undergo treatment at the Taipei Municipal Wan Fang Hospital but the doctors refused, saying they did not believe Su needed inpatient care.

"I pretended to take pills at 9 p.m. every night but then spit them out after the nurse left. I wanted to prove that I was not ill," Su said of his experience at Shin Kong Hospital where the doctor locked him up in a psychiatric ward claiming he was suffering from bipolar disorder and hallucinations, without engaging in a proper diagnosis.

He said he eventually left Shin Kong Hospital after his parents were persuaded by doctors that he was fit to be discharged. To prove that he was not mentally unstable, Su obtained certificates of diagnosis from Taipei City Hospital and National Taiwan University Hospital both of which said he was mentally sound.

The case was taken up by Huang Wei-cher, a lawmaker in Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party who is calling for the government to reflect on whether the process for hospitalising psychiatric patients was flawed. Huang added that the Health Bureau under Taipei City Government has promised to investigate whether or not Shin Kong Hospital violated the law.

The Taiwan Times reported that Su's father told the Chinese-language tabloid Apple Daily that his son had mental problems and needed to be hospitalised.

"I can't forgive him for suing a family member. Can he say that he is not sick after he has accused his family?" the Times quoted Su's father as saying. According to local media, after the press conference, Su's mother barred her son from the house.

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I'm not in a gay relationship with my best friend, says Oprah
US television talk show host Oprah Winfrey has squashed rumours of she having a romantic relationship with her business partner and best friend of 30 years, Gayle King, in an interview in the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. She says that she would have told her fans if it were true.

She admits that some people have misunderstood her close relationship with King - an editor on the magazine and often seen with Winfrey in public - but they are not a gay couple.

"I understand why people think we're gay," she says. "There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it - how can you be this close without it being sexual?"

Winfrey's is known to be in a long-term relationship with self-help author and guru Stedman Graham for years although they two have said they have no plans to wed anytime soon.

In the magazine, Winfrey, 52, and King share details about their 30-year friendship and "four-times-a-day phone calls." They assert that they would have no problem telling the public if they were in a sexual relationship.

Says Winfrey: "Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own."

"The truth is, if we were gay, we would tell you, because there's nothing wrong with being gay," 51-year-old King said.

Winfrey quipped: "I've told nearly everything there is to tell. All my stuff is out there. People think I'd be so ashamed of being gay that I wouldn't admit it? Oh, please."

Read the interview in O, The Oprah Magazine here.