Weaponising Religious Freedom and Gender Equality

Religion
Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94 Human

Rights
brill.com/rhrs
Weaponising Religious Freedom: Same-Sex

Marriage and Gender Equality in the Philippines
Jayeel Cornelio
Director, Development Studies Program, Ateneo de Manila University,
Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines
[email protected]
Robbin Charles M. Dagle

Research Associate, Development Studies Program, Ateneo de Manila
University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines
[email protected]
Abstract
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 ap-
pealed to religious freedom to gain equal rights under the law, conservative Christian
entities have fought back by invoking the same notion. They have appropriated re-
ligious 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 domi-
nant religion and an assumed majority of Filipinos whose moral sensibilities are pur-
portedly 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.
Keywords
Philippines – religious freedom – gender equality – same-sex marriage – LGBTQ

rights – Christianity
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/18710328-13021146

66 Cornelio AND Dagle
1 Introduction: LGBTQ-Friendly Society?
There are claims that the Philippines is among the ‘most gay-friendly coun-
tries in the world’.1 Public acceptance is high with 73 per cent of Filipino adults
agreeing that ‘society should accept homosexuality’.2 In fact, Pew’s global sur-
vey shows that among 37 participating countries, the Philippines is tenth in
terms of public acceptance. That this is the case seems counterintuitive given
the fact that the country is also among the most religious societies in the
world.3 This makes the Philippines an outlier in Pew’s report that a strong neg-
ative correlation exists between religiosity and acceptance of homosexuality.
Intergenerational change accompanies this openness. Acceptance varies
across different age brackets: 60 per cent among 50 years old and above, 71 per
cent among 30–49, and 78 per cent among 18–29.4 But this generational shift is
not an isolated trend. It has accompanied too cultural shifts in relation to gen-
der stereotypes. One example is the changing discourses surrounding bakla
(Filipino term for gay) which is no longer simply associated with effeminacy.
To be bakla in recent years has taken on new meanings. Local films now feature
characters in which non-effeminate homosexuals are willing to self-identify as
gays and men at once.5 In the realm of politics, the recent election of the first
transgender representative in Congress was widely celebrated.6 Although she
comes from a political dynasty herself, the arrival of Representative Geraldine
Roman marks a milestone in rendering visible queer identities in the political
sphere. She achieved what was elusive for the party Ladlad, which tried on
several occasions to make it to Congress as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
and queer (LGBTQ) party. Although Ladlad has never won a seat in Congress,
1 Leila Salaverria, ‘PH LGBT-friendly, but 61% oppose Same-Sex Marriage’, Inquirer.net,
1 July 2018 http://www.newsinfo.inquirer.net/1005757/ph-lgbt-friendly-but-61-oppose-same
-sex-marriage, 7 November 2018.
2 Pew Research Center, The Global Divide on Homosexuality, 27 May 2014, http://www
.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Homo
sexuality-Report-REVISED-MAY-27-2014.pdf, accessed 8 November 2018.
3 Tom W. Smith, ‘Beliefs about God across Time and Countries’, 2012, www.norc.org/pdfs/
beliefs_about_god_report.pdf, 9 March 2013.
4 Pew Research Center, supra note 2.
5 Ronald Baytan, ‘Bading na Bading: Evolving Identities in Philippine Cinema’, in F. Martin
et al (eds.), AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities (Champaign, IL: University
of Illinois Press, 2008), pp. 181–196.
6 Heather Chen, ‘Geraldine Roman: First Transgender Politician elected in the Philippines’,
BBC News, 10 May 2016, <www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36253666>, 7 November 2018.
Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

Weaponising Religious Freedom 67
what it began as a forerunner of queer activism in earlier years has helped form
a community among sexual minorities.7
To be sure, to claim that Philippine society accepts homosexuality can also
be misleading. In another survey, Pew Research Center reports that 65 per cent
of Filipino adults believe that homosexuality is ‘morally unacceptable’.8 That
this view is embraced by the majority explains why prominent politicians like
Manny Pacquiao can readily claim that homosexual couples are ‘worse than
animals’.9 There are cases of gender-based violence too, some of which are
high profile. In 2014, Jennifer Laude, a transgender woman, was killed by US
Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton. In social media, remarks jus-
tified Pemberton’s acts for not knowing that Laude was a transgender woman
when they checked into the motel where she was later found dead.10 In terms
of marital arrangements, same-sex couples remain unrecognised by the law.
The absence of legal recognition means that same-sex couples cannot have
the economic benefits and government assistance available for married het-
erosexual couples. Public opinion backs the status quo. Sixty-one per cent of
Filipinos oppose the civil union of same-sex couples.11
2 Argument
This introductory vignette shows that generational and cultural shifts are tak-
ing place in contemporary Philippine society. The shifts in themselves bring
to surface the tensions surrounding gender equality. Specifically, these shifts
provide an opening to challenge the enduring marginalisation of the LGBTQ
7 Cheryll Soriano, ‘Constructing Collectivity in Diversity: Online Political Mobilization of a

National LGBT Political Party’, 36:1 Media, Culture & Society (2014), pp. 20–36.
8 Pew Research Center, Global Views on Morality: The Philippines, 2013, http://www
.pewglobal.org/2014/04/15/global-morality/country/philippines/, accessed 8 November
2018.
9 Rappler.com, Pacquiao: Couples in Same-Sex Unions ‘worse than Animals’”, Rappler,
16 February 2016, www.rappler.com/move-ph/122620-pacquiao-lgbt-same-sex-unions
-worse-animals, 8 November 2018.
10 Buena Bernal, ‘Remarks vs Laude reflect deep-seated Prejudice—CHR’, Rappler,
25 October 2014, www.rappler.com/nation/54946-supreme-court-rh-law-constitutional,
16 November 2018.
11 Social Weather Stations, ‘First Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey: 61% of Pinoys
oppose, and 22% support, a Law that will allow the Civil Union of Two Men or
Two Women’, Social Weather Stations, 29 June 2018, www.sws.org.ph/swsmain/
artcldisppage/?artcsyscode=ART-20180629215050&mc_cid=a2766c3641&mc_eid=
1c2e0bac70, 7 November 2018.

community. Recently, unprecedented moves have been initiated to advance

their rights and interests in the country. One is called the SOGIE Equality Bill.
It is a proposed legislation to prevent different forms of discrimination based
on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression (acronym for SOGIE).
Another move is about recognising same-sex marriage. But instead of pushing
for it in Congress, a lawyer filed a petition with the Supreme Court to challenge
the constitutionality of the country’s longstanding Family Code.
How does Christianity, the country’s dominant religion, respond to these
initiatives? This question is important because it nuances how the Philippines
is an outlier in the global patterns described above. These moves for same-sex
marriage and gender equality test the influence of religious fundamentalism,
which dominates moral worldviews surrounding marriage, family life, and sex-
uality in Philippine society.12 In fact, for the proposed law itself, gender equal-
ity means prohibiting ‘discrimination, marginalization and violence’ based
on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.13 In this light, gender
equality does not only mean equality between men and women, but among
persons of all SOGIE. In our view, although these moves have been arrested as
of late, the fact that they entered the public sphere is in itself a testament to
changes in the acceptability of homosexuality and other gender-related issues.
To analyse their fortunes at this point is significant because they will recur as
generational and cultural shifts carry on.14 They will challenge religious and
moral boundaries in this predominantly Christian country.15
It is in this light that our interest in religious freedom comes to the fore.
As we will discuss in the succeeding sections, the proponents of the SOGIE
Equality Bill and same-sex marriage have not only framed their arguments
using legal and economic terms. They have also appealed to religious freedom,
a move that contests the influence of conservative Christian groups in policy-
making. Queer Filipinos and their allies are using religious freedom in their
struggle to gain equal rights.
But as we also intend to demonstrate in this article, this move has been met
with resistance from influential Christian entities—Catholic and otherwise.
12 Jayeel S. Cornelio, ‘The Philippines’, in K. Ross, T. Johnson, and F. Alvarez (eds.), Edinburgh
Companions to Global Christianity: Christianity in East and South-East Asia (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2020).
13 17th Congress, An Act Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation or
Gender Identity or Expression (SOGIE) and Providing Penalties Therefor, (House Bill 4982), 2.
14 Robert Turner, ‘The Philippines: Make Way for the Baklas’, The Gay & Lesbian Review
Worldwide (September 2017), p. 28.
15 Jayeel S. Cornelio, Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines: Young People
Reinterpreting Religion, (London and New York: Routledge, 2016).

The resistance invokes religious freedom too. In what follows, we will show
how religious freedom, which has historically been interpreted by the courts
in favour of individual liberties, has been appropriated to invoke the prevailing
conservative values.16 We show that the weaponisation of religious freedom by
the dominant religious bloc is a relatively new innovation in the Philippines.
Specifically, religious freedom is used in defence of the dominant religion and
an assumed majority of Filipinos whose moral sensibilities are purportedly
under attack.17 Towards the end of the article, we account for this weaponisa-
tion by relating it to the experience of the Catholic Church in the contempo-
rary public sphere and the militant character of Christianity in the Philippines.
3 Religious Freedom and LGBTQ Rights
Religious freedom is presented in the literature in two ways. Although in prin-

ciple it emphasises an individual’s right to religious belief and practice, there
are states that prioritise the interests of the majority. Thus, as far as religious
freedom is concerned, a tension exists between the welfare of individuals
(especially minorities) and the values of the majority (who may not agree with
the advocacy of the former). Various cases involving religious freedom and
LGBTQ rights around the world exemplify this tension. Crucial here is the role
of the state in adjudicating conflicts.
3.1 Whose Interests?

Religious freedom is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.18 The right to religious freedom—or the freedom of thought, con-
science, religion and belief—is meant as a right not for religions but for
human beings, ‘who—as individuals and in community with others—are the
direct holders of this right’.19 This stems from ‘the experience of an irreversible
pluralism in matters of religion and world view’, wherein giving specific reli-
gions legal protections would mean discriminating others.20 By adopting the
16 Jayeel S. Cornelio, ‘Religious Freedom in the Philippines: From Legalities to Lived
Experience’, 11:2 The Review of Faith and International Affairs (2017), pp. 36–45.
17 See Travis Gasper, ‘A Religious Right to Discriminate: Hobby Lobby and ‘Religious Freedom’
as a Threat to the LGBT Community’, 3:2 Texas A&M Law Review (2015), pp. 395–416.
18 It was effectively enforced as international law in Article 18 of the 1966 International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Heiner Bielefeldt, ‘Religious Freedom: A Disputed
Human Right’, 2 Concilium International Journal of Theology (2016), pp. 37–47.
19 Ibid., p. 39.
20 Ibid.

ertinent international legal frameworks, states are expected to be the guaran-

p
tors of religious freedom, but this right can only be ‘effectively established in
cooperation between state and non-state actors’.21
While religious freedom is a universal human right, how it is applied is com-
plex in different contexts. Thus, Bader notes that religious freedom is not an
‘absolute right’ and ‘does not exist in a vacuum’.22 Indeed the concept has been
deployed in different ways over time. Tracing the history of religious freedom
in American public life, Wenger unpacks how it is an ‘eminently malleable dis-
course, a shared cultural value that has been defined and deployed in a wide
variety of ways’.23 On the one hand, its ‘most audible varieties’24 helped white
American Christians ‘mark their own superiority and the civilisational inad-
equacies of those they governed’, particularly Filipinos, African Americans,
and Native Americans.25 On the other, these communities have used religious
freedom to assert their own traditions.
As religious freedom involves both private belief and public choices26 (as in
the case of businesses owned by religious individuals), secular liberal democ-
racies face the delicate task of qualifying this right once it enters the public
sphere and stands in contrast to other civil rights.27 States have to confront too
the dual implications of religious freedom as both negative freedom (freedom
from interference) and positive freedom (freedom to believe and practice).28
We will show in the next section how these limits are tested.
Differences surface according to context too. Wilfred differentiates Western
and Asian perspectives.29 In advanced societies in the West, religious freedom
is generally defined as a ‘matter of conscience’.30 The Asian experience sees
religious freedom as ‘first and foremost a community issue’, and ‘often a matter
21 Ibid., p. 47.

22 Veit Bader, ‘Religious Freedoms and Other Human Rights, Moral Conundrums and
Hardcases’, in Secularism or Democracy?: Associational Governance of Religious Diversity
(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007), pp. 129–130.
23 Tisa Wenger, Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal (Chapel Hill,
NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017), p. 235.
24 Ibid., p. 1.
25 Ibid., p. 235.
26 Rex Tauati Ahdar, ‘The Vulnerability of Religious Liberty in Liberal States’, 4:2–3 Religion
& Human Rights (2009). pp. 177–195.
27 Carl F. Stychin, ‘Faith in the Future: Sexuality, Religion and the Public Sphere’, 29:4 Oxford
Journal of Legal Studies (Winter 2009), pp. 729–755.
28 Bader, supra note 22, pp. 129–152.
29 Felix Wilfred, ‘Religious Freedom in Asia’, 2 Concilium International Journal of Theology
(2016), pp. 63–74.
30 Ibid., p. 63.

of sub-nationalities and ethnicity’.31 Given the region’s immense religious

diversity, an Asian perspective on religious freedom considers not only the in-
dividual’s freedom or a religious community’s immunity from the state, but the
protection of religious minorities as well.32 Wilfred demonstrates this point by
categorising three situations in Asia.
First is when religious identity overlaps with race and ethnic identity. There
are countries that treat national identity and religious identity as one. They
have designated the majority religion as state religion or with special legal
status. Examples are Buddhists in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar, and
Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. The second situation deals
with control of all religions by the centralised state, as seen in the communist
countries of China and Vietnam.33 While China came out with a statement
on religious freedom in its 1982 Constitution, religions—especially foreign
ones such as Christianity and Islam—are still highly restricted and regulated,
as they are seen as potentially ‘destabilising’ forces.34 The last situation deals
with countries with a clear secular and democratic base such as India and the
Philippines. Legally speaking, these states do not define religious freedom ac-
cording to the religion of their majority.35 As far as their legal frameworks are
concerned, religious freedom is protected as an individual liberty.
3.2 Adjudicating Freedoms

One area where the limits of religious freedom is tested is in its engagement—
or ‘irreconcilable clash’—with the ascendant LGBTQ rights movement.36 Some
religious actors see the passage of pro-LGBTQ legislation as an affront to their
deeply-held beliefs on sexuality, marriage, and the family. Different cases
worldwide demonstrate how the state plays an active role to define religious
freedom and even adjudicate conflicting interests. What is tested in the end
is whether religious freedom should favour individual rights or the majority’s
interests. Several illustrations are called for.
Western liberal democracies with a diverse populace tend to uphold the
secular nature of the state and the public sphere in adjudicating conflicts be-
tween religious freedom and LGBTQ rights. Smet notes that state institutions
in the US, UK, and the Netherlands have ‘decisively and unequivocally sided
31 Ibid., pp. 72–73.

32 Ibid., pp. 63–74.
33 Ibid., p. 65.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid., pp. 63–74.
36 Stychin, supra note 27, p. 729.

with same-sex equality’37 when pitted against religious freedom. For instance,
in cases involving civil servants refusing to perform same-sex marriages due
to their beliefs, courts in Canada, France, and the United Kingdom refused to
grant religious exemptions as they would compromise the state’s neutral and
secular nature.38 Analysing similar cases from the UK and the Netherlands,
Smet posits that claims based on conscientious objection were prohibited be-
cause they exceed the ‘limits of toleration’.39 The United Kingdom Supreme
Court also upheld a same-sex couple’s claim of unlawful discrimination against
a bed and breakfast that denied them lodging because of the owner’s religious
beliefs.40 The Court concluded that the freedom of religion ‘is limited where it
conflicts with the rights of others’.41 In Canada, the British Columbia Human
Rights Tribunal ruled in Eadie v. Riverbend Bed and Breakfast that ‘when [busi-
ness] owners entered into commercial sphere, they were required to comply
with the human rights laws governing it’.42 In effect, the aforementioned cases
have placed a limit on claims to religious freedom when they interfere with the
civil rights of LGBTQ individuals.
In other cases, however, the religious interests of influential groups are de-
cisive in turning down moves for gender-related issues. Singapore, for exam-
ple, generally employs a statist approach to religious freedom. This approach
is often articulated in the interest of national unity. In the case of LGBTQ
rights, the state has shown that it can accommodate and even appropriate
religious interests in pursuing its communitarian objectives. But Obendorf
observes that Christianity ‘has gained a powerful influence over Singapore’s
religious and cultural landscape’, which helps in shaping ‘social responses to
the issue of homosexuality’.43 To appease both conservative and LGBTQ rights
advocates, Singapore’s parliament decided to retain but not ‘proactively en-
37 Stijn Smet, ‘Conscientious Objection to Same-Sex Marriages: Beyond the Limits of
Toleration’, 11:2 Religion and Human Rights (2016), pp. 114–139.
38 International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations, Drawing the Line: Tackling
Tensions Between Religious Freedom and Equality, September 2015, www.cels.org.ar/
common/documentos/DrawingtheLine.pdf, accessed 17 October 2018.
39 Notably, the key liberal principle of toleration was earlier used by philosophers John
Locke and Pierre Bayle to defend some religious adherents against state repression. Smet,
supra note 37.
40 International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations, supra note 38.
41 Ibid., p. 13.
42 Ibid., p. 14.
43 Simon Obendorf, ‘A Few Respectable Steps behind the World? Gay and Lesbian Rights
in Contemporary Singapore’, in C. Lennox and M. Waites (eds.), Human Rights, Sexual
Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth (London: School of Advanced
Study, University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 2013), pp. 231–259.

force’ Section 377A of the colonial-era Penal Code, which prohibits oral and
anal sex between consenting adult men.44 While Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong recognised changing attitudes to gay rights worldwide, he feared that
the intensifying debate between conservatives and gay activists may become
‘counter-productive’ and give ‘less space for the gay community’.45 Lee pro-
posed a wait-and-see attitude, allowing for ‘the situation to evolve gradually’,
and ‘watch how things work out elsewhere’ before making any ‘irrevocable
moves’.46
There are also other cases wherein religious and national identities are in-
timately linked against the interests of the LGBTQ community. In the sultan-
ate of Brunei Darussalam—the first Southeast Asian country to implement a
strict form of Islamic criminal law—Muslims and non-Muslims found guilty
of engaging in homosexual intercourse can be punished by stoning to death.47
The strict implementation of Shari’a is the government’s way of protecting
Islam’s privileged position, which includes ‘curb[ing] the influences of other
religions’ to ‘ensure that harmony and peace are maintained’.48 The intimate
link between religion and nation is also evident in other regions. Many coun-
tries in Latin America, where the Catholic Church still enjoys cultural and po-
litical influence, have seen an ‘incomplete process’ of ‘political secularisation’.49
Vaggione thus observes that ‘civil law has established privileges and exclu-
sions as a way to preserve a sexual hierarchy according to religious doctrine’.50
In Uganda, where the government tried to push for an Anti-Homosexuality Bill
in 2009, homosexuality was branded as ‘un-African’.51 In a move that echoes
neocolonialism, right-wing American evangelicals have globalised their cul-
ture wars from home by forging ties with African leaders to influence and align
legislation with conservative beliefs about gender and sexuality.52
44 Human Rights Resource Centre, Keeping the Faith: A Study on Freedom of Thought,
Conscience, and Religion in ASEAN, January 2015, www.hrrca.org/wp-content/uploads/
2015/11/Book-of-Keeping-the-Faith_web.pdf, accessed 24 October 2018.
45 Ibid., p. 458.
46 Ibid., p. 459.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid., p. 66.
49 Juan Marco Vaggione, ‘Sexuality, Law, and Religion in Latin America: Frameworks in
Tension’, 8:1 Religion & Gender (2018), p. 21.
50 Ibid., p. 19.
51 Kristen Cheney, “Locating Neocolonialism, ‘Tradition’, and Human Rights in Uganda’s
‘Gay Death Penalty’”, 55:2 African Studies Review (September 2012), p. 83.
52 Kapya Kaoma, Globalizing the Culture Wars: US Conservatives, African Churches & Ho
mophobia, 2009, Political Research Associates, <www.politicalresearch.org/wp-content/
uploads/downloads/2012/11/africa-full-report.pdf>, 14 November 2018.

3.3 The Role of Non-State Actors

Our discussion of the literature thus far has shown how religious freedom as
individual liberty is tested against the interests of the majority. In many cases,
it has tested the secular character of states and the businesses that operate
in these places even if religious individuals might own them. Crucial here is
the role of the state in articulating what religious freedom means in relation
to gender issues. There are two broad camps. Many states have interpreted
religious freedom as an individual right. The rights of LGBTQ individuals are
generally upheld as a result. In other regimes, religious freedom privileges the
prevailing morality of the community. In these cases, the advocacies of the
LGBTQ sector are overruled.
There are international norms that tend to emphasise religious freedom as
an individual right.53 But legal regimes are primarily shaped by local contexts
in which the meaning of religious freedom is ultimately outlined.54 For exam-
ple, the tension between religious freedom and discrimination remains to be
settled. This is certainly the case in the US, which has a longstanding view of
religious freedom as individual liberty. But it needs to be squared with the civil
rights of LGBTQ individuals. The recent case involving Jack Phillips, a Colorado
baker who refused to prepare a wedding cake for a gay couple because of his
religious convictions, exemplifies this tension. The Supreme Court eventu-
ally overturned the initial decision of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
The ruling, however, did not touch on the question of religious exemptions
for businesses. In the decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote for the
majority, even upheld the gay couple’s right to equal dignity by reaffirming
Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalised same-sex marriage nationwide.55
Although scholarship has for the most part focused on the role of the
state in adjudicating religious freedom, we also argue that it is equally im-
portant to give attention to the way it is deployed by other non-state actors.
Religious groups matter in this regard. Religious and faith-based groups are
seen as ‘strong veto players’ that can make the struggle for LGBTQ rights more
53 Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, ‘Believing in Religious Freedom’, in W.F. Sullivan, et al. (eds.),
Politics of Religious Freedom (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2015),
pp. 45–56; Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, et al. ‘Introduction’, in W.F. Sullivan, et al. (eds.),
Politics of Religious Freedom (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2015),
pp. 1–9.
54 Li-Ann Thio, ‘Courting Religion: The Judge between Caesar and God in Asian Courts’,
Singapore Journal of Legal Studies (2009), pp. 52–79.
55 Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd., et al. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 4 June 2018, Supreme
Court of the United States, 584 U.S. (2018).

difficult.56 The Singapore case, as described above, testifies to this point.

Obendorf notes that the Singapore government’s need to ‘appear secular and
non-discriminatory has led to the emergence of a vocal, assertive, Christian
movement mobilising around “hot-button” issues such as homosexuality in the
interests of defining a moral vision for the nation’.57 A similar case is evident
too in Latin America where conservative Catholics and Evangelicals have also
devised new ways to resist moves for gender equality.58 Vaggione notes that
the Catholic Church in the region has employed two strategies: intensifying its
secular arguments and establishing the pro-life/pro-family movement among
the laity.59 In Colombia, conservative lay Catholics in government have taken
on the role of religious activists by intimidating and disciplining judges who
issued licenses to same-sex couples at the time when its legal status was still
unclear.60 A compelling motivation for these religious actors is religious na-
tionalism, which compels state actors to favour the dominant religious group.61
Religious nationalism in this regard is not just about professing a religious
identity but also subscribing to its interpretation of sexual moralities. Failure
to uphold these sexual norms can be readily interpreted as being unfaithful to
both religion and the nation.
In the context of our research, we take inspiration from the work of Gasper62
in the US and Leviste63 in the Philippines. They have shown how religious ac-
tors can be strategic in advancing their interests by pushing the boundaries
of legal definitions. Specifically, our study interrogates how religious groups
use religious freedom as a discursive tool to lobby their positions in the
56 Javier Corrales, ‘The Politics of LGBT Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean: Research
Agendas’, 100 European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (December 2015),
p. 54.
57 Obendorf, supra note 43, p. 239.
58 Sara Garbagnoli, ‘Against the Heresy of Immanence: Vatican’s ‘Gender’ as a New Rhetorical
Device Against the Denaturalization of the Sexual Order’, 6:2 Religion & Gender (2016),
pp. 187–204; Mario Pecheny, et al, ‘Sexual Politics and Religious Actors in Argentina’, 6:2
Religion & Gender (2016), pp. 205–225.
59 Vaggione, supra note 49.
60 Mauricio Albarracin and Julieta Lemaitre, ‘The Crusade against Same-Sex Marriage in
Colombia’, 8:1 Religion & Gender (2018), pp. 32–49.
61 Jaclyn Neo, ‘Religious Freedom and the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration: Prospects
and Challenges’, 14:4 The Review of Faith & International Affairs (2016), pp. 1–15.
62 Gasper, supra note 17.
63 Enrique Niño Leviste, ‘In the Name of Fathers, in Defense of Mothers: Hegemony,
Resistance, and the Catholic Church on the Philippine Population Policy’, 64:1 Philippine
Sociological Review (2016), pp. 5–44.

public sphere. We note Moyn’s64 discussion on the conservative Catholic and

Evangelical Protestant alliance in the US defending religious freedom and re-
ligion’s role in the public sphere. He points out that both groups—which were
previously wary of the idea—pivoted towards religious freedom in response
to social changes, including increasing diversity and secularism. This leads us
to our research question: How is religious freedom deployed as discourse by
dominant religious institutions to lobby against progressive policies for gender
equality and same-sex marriage? We answer this question in the next section.
4 Discussion
The Catholic Church and its conservative allies from other religions have ac-
tively blocked legislative measures pushing for LGBTQ rights since they were
first filed in the 1990s.65 Historically, the conservative discourse has appealed
to the morality of a presumed majority of Filipinos whose beliefs are aligned
with theirs. Echoing the literature above, we argue that a shift in the discourse
is discernible. In the early years of the debate for gender equality in Congress,
religious legislators rejected the moves out of moral panic over homosexual-
ity in the Philippines.66 But in recent years, influential Christian figures have
appropriated religious freedom in arguing against same-sex marriage and
gender equality. Religious freedom is now used to articulate a defence for the
presumed majority’s values. Yet we also find that the historically marginalised
LGBTQ sector and allies have turned to religious freedom in struggling for
more equal rights. While our chronology follows the progress of specific bills
in Congress and a case in the Supreme Court, we focus on the discourses that
emanated from religious groups and individuals.
64 Samuel Moyn, ‘Religious Freedom between Truth and Tactic’ in W.F. Sullivan, et al. (eds.),
Politics of Religious Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), pp. 135–141.
65 G ALANG Philippines, Policy Audit: Social Protection Policies and Urban Poor LBTs in the
Philippines, 2013; United Nations Development Programme and United States Agency for
International Development, Being LGBT in Asia: The Philippines Country Report, 2014, www
.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1861/2014%20UNDP-USAID%20Philippines
%20LGBT%20Country%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf, accessed 15 October 2018.
66 Julius Bautista, “Church and State in the Philippines: Tackling Life Issues in a ‘Culture
of Death’”, 25:1 SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia (2010), pp. 29–53;
Anne Raffin and Jayeel S. Cornelio, ‘The Catholic Church and Education as Sources
of Institutional Panic in the Philippines’, 37:5 Asian Journal of Social Science (2009),
pp. 778–798.

4.1 Moral Panic

In March 1999, Isabela representative Bellaflor Angara-Castillo filed the
Lesbian and Gay Rights Act, which aimed to recognise gay and lesbian domes-
tic partnerships. This was the first time that a bill of this kind was proposed
in Congress. Gay activist and professor Danton Remoto recalled in a speech
that both the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei and Muslim separatists
Moro National Liberation Front and Moro Islamic Liberation Front released
‘strong statements’ opposing the bill.67 However, LGBTQ rights organisations
questioned the lack of consultations on the bill.68
The first Anti-Discrimination Bill, which aimed to ‘define and penalise
practices that unjustly discriminate against gays and lesbians’,69 was filed in
2000 by Akbayan party list representative Etta Rosales and Senator Miriam
Defensor-Santiago during the 11th Congress (1998–2001). As the 12th Congress
(2001–2004) was about to close, the House of Representatives passed on third
reading Rosales’ Anti-Discrimination Bill. But the Senate was not able to pass
its own version as politicians were already gearing up for elections.70
Rosales filed another version of the bill as soon as the 13th Congress (2004–
2007) opened in July 2004. Senators Defensor-Santiago and Bong Revilla filed
their own counterpart measures in the Senate as well. It took two years for
Revilla’s bill to get a public hearing under the Senate’s labour, employment and
human resources development committee.71 The measure intended to pro-
hibit and penalise discriminatory practices based on gender such as denying
access to public services, employment, and education and forcing a medical
test to determine one’s sexual orientation or gender identity.72
67 Danton Remoto, ‘On Same-Sex Marriage and Spirituality’, Philstar.com, 13 February 2006,
<www.philstar.com/lifestyle/arts-and-culture/2006/02/13/321516/same-sex-marriage
-and-spirituality>, 28 November 2018.
68 J. Neil C. Garcia, Philippine Gay Culture: Binabae to Bakla, Silahis to MSM, 2nd ed. (Quezon
City: The University of the Philippines Press, 2008).
69 ‘House Bill/Resolution History: HB09095—11th Congress (1999–2001)’, www.congress.gov
.ph/legis/, accessed 5 November 2018.
70 Danton Remoto, ‘Gay and Lesbian Rights Bill Goes Pffft in the Senate’, Philstar.Com,
16 February 2004, <www.philstar.com/lifestyle/arts-and-culture/2004/02/16/239248/gay
-and-lesbian-rights-bill-goes-pffft-senate>, 28 November 2018.
71 Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, ‘Senate to Tackle Bill Penalizing
Prejudicial Treatment of Gay Community’, The PCIJ Blog, 4 August 2006, <www.pcij.org/
blog/2006/08/04/senate-to-tackle-bill-penalizing-discrimination-vs-lesbians-gays
-bisexuals-and-transgenders>, 12 November 2018.
72 Senate of the Philippines, An Act Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual
Orientation and Gender Identity and Providing Penalties Therefor, 23 August 2004, www
.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/29492522!.pdf.

Meanwhile, Rosales’ bill fell victim to political manoeuvrings, as well as ac-

tive obstruction by religious conservatives. After supporting the impeachment
complaint against then embattled President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Rosales
was ousted as chair of the House human rights committee in 2006.73 Benny
Abante, the representative of Manila’s sixth district and a Baptist pastor, took
over her committee as well as jurisdiction of the Anti-Discrimination Bill. By
that time, Rosales’ committee already approved the bill and was up for second
reading.
But Abante made headlines when he vowed to block the bill on grounds
that it would promote ‘morally reprehensible’ sexuality.74 In another interview,
he argued that the bill is not a ‘human rights issue’, but a ‘moral one’.75 In a
privilege speech before Congress, Abante raised the rhetoric by calling on his
colleagues to reject a ‘culture of death’.76 To him it would mean ‘death to the
most cherished Filipino values of godliness and moral rectitude’. Citing the
Constitution’s reference to ‘Almighty God’ in the preamble, Abante claimed
that making laws should be ‘guided by what is right before God’.77 He also re-
futed what he considered essentialist arguments from the LGBTQ community,
saying that the bill’s passage would ‘encourage social aberrations as well as
moral decadence through unconventional lifestyles that will come to pass as
acceptable norms of conduct’. Indeed, to show how the bill offends the moral-
ity of the entire nation, Abante did not only quote Biblical verses that tackle
homosexuality, but also those from the Hadith and the Qur’an. He then warned
that passing the Anti-Discrimination Bill would ‘abet sin and ungodliness’ and
‘invite the wrath of God upon ourselves and our God-loving nation’.78
73 Lagablab, “House Committee on Human Rights Chairperson Calls Homosexuality

‘Morally Reprehensible’”, Lagablab, 21 October 2006, <www.lagablab.wordpress.com/
2006/10/21/house-committee-on-human-rights-chairperson-calls-homosexuality
-morally-reprehensible/>, 5 November 2018.
74 Ibid.
75 Fidel Jimenez, ‘Pro-Gay Bill Not a Rights Issue—House HR Chair’, GMA News Online,
16 November 2006, <www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/21146/pro-gay-bill-not-a
-rights-issue-house-hr-chair/story/>, 9 November 2018.
76 Here, Abante echoes the late Pope John Paul II, who first used the phrase in his 1995
encyclical Evangelium vitae that reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanc-
tity of human life. The document tackled issues such as abortion, euthanasia, contracep-
tion, and embryonic stem cell research. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 25 March 1995,
w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995
_evangelium-vitae.html, accessed 28 November 2018.
77 Bienvenido Jr. Abante, ‘Rejecting A Culture of Death’, 20 November 2006, www.lagablab
.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/abante-speech.pdf, accessed 20 November 2018.
78 Ibid.

Throughout his speech, religious freedom was mentioned only once while
quoting an American political analyst. He quoted Hess as saying that the
‘religious freedoms of vast numbers of Americans will be put in jeopardy if
same-sex relationships, marriages are legalised’.79 The congressman did not
elaborate on the statement but warned that the nation may ‘suffer the same
fate that befell Sodom and Gomorrah, and lately, New Orleans’, referring to the
2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster. Although only in passing, this was arguably
the first time that religious freedom as an idea was brought up in any legislative
deliberation on an LGBTQ-related measure.
In a show of force, he brought with him 200 supporters from different
churches.80 Representatives from parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese
of Caloocan, ‘ex-gay’ group COURAGE, Believers League for Morality and
Democracy, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, Alliance of Baptist
Councils, International Baptist Ministry Association, and the Bible Baptist
Fellowship of the Philippines came.81 Abante claimed that they represented
35,000 churches around the country.82 Some of these groups also released a
statement rejecting the bill as it ‘legitimises homosexuality and lesbianism as
acceptable lifestyles in the Philippine society’, even if ‘the Bible clearly speaks
against homosexuality and lesbianism as practices that are ungodly and
wrong’.83 The groups questioned the factual basis of LGBTQ oppression and
claimed that the bill may pave the way for same-sex marriage.
A dominant feature of Abante’s speech and the statements of other reli-
gious groups that supported him was that they all reflected moral panic over
homosexuality. This was to be expected because finally, gender equality in
favour of the LGBTQ community was making its presence felt in the legisla-
tive process. This was unprecedented in what was in the eyes of many people
and the Catholic hierarchy a religious nation.84 Indeed, two days before his
privilege speech, Abante held an assembly of 1,000 Baptists to call for ‘moral
79 Ibid.
80 Lagablab, ‘House Human Rights Chair: Anti-Discrimination Bill to Invite Wrath of
God’, Lagablab, 22 November 2006, <www.lagablab.wordpress.com/2006/11/22/abante
-speech/#more-151>, 9 November 2018.
81 Abante, supra note 77.
82 Ibid.
83 Fidel Jimenez, ‘Baptists move to block pro-gay Bill at House’, GMA News Online,
19 November 2006, <www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/21424/baptists-move-to
-block-pro-gay-bill-at-house/story/>, 20 November 2018.
84 Jose Mario Francisco, ‘People of God, People of the Nation: Official Catholic Discourse on
Nation and Nationalism’, 62:3–4 Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints
62 (2014), pp. 341–376.

righteousness’.85 Other issues at the same time were taking the attention of
Congress, notably the Reproductive Health Bill. Religious critics associated
this bill with moral decline, promiscuity, and abortion. Thus, for influential
Christian leaders, that the move for the Reproductive Health Bill coincided
with that for gender equality indicated that a ‘culture of death’ was taking
shape in Philippine society.86 When Human Rights Watch named Abante to
their ‘Hall of Shame’ because of his opposition to the bill, the group noted
that ‘US-based religious groups working in the Philippines’ had been working
against the bill by promoting ‘the idea that homosexuality is a “curable” be-
haviour and a “perverse deathstyle”’.87 Abante’s obstruction bore fruit, as the
Anti-Discrimination Bill never passed the House of Representatives.
4.2 Religious Freedom, the Dominant Religion, and Filipino Values

Later on, in the 15th Congress (2010–2013), legal protection against LGBTQ dis-
crimination was almost enacted when the Senate included it as part of the
Anti-Ethnic or Racial Profiling and Discrimination Act. Conservative senator
Vicente Sotto III was successful in amending it so that it would not lead to
same-sex marriage.88 The Senate unanimously passed the bill on third read-
ing in 2011.89 It was at this point that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP) leapt into action.
The shift in the discourse is noticeable. In a press conference on
7 December 2011, CBCP lawyer Jo Imbong argued that the bill violates religious
freedom and the ‘no prior restraint’ principle in freedom of speech. For the
CBCP, the government may not penalise a religious group from ‘excluding a per-
son from Church responsibilities … based upon that person’s moral behaviour
which could include the practice or promotion of homosexuality’.90 Religious
freedom at this time was becoming a clear position of the Church. Indeed,
Imbong also insisted that the bill hinders the Catholic Church from preaching
its doctrine. Ronald Reyes, another CBCP lawyer, claimed that the legislation
85 Jimenez, supra note 83.

86 Bautista, supra note 66, p. 36; Raffin and Cornelio, supra note 66.
87 ‘The 2007 Hall of Shame’, Human Rights Watch, 15 May 2007, www.hrw.org/news/2007/
05/15/2007-hall-shame, accessed 20 November 2018.
88 Senate of the Philippines, Journal, 14 November 2011, p. 525, <www.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/
1241612604!.pdf>, 12 November 2018.
89 Senate of the Philippines, Journal, 21 November 2011, p. 692, <www.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/
1264712609!.pdf>, 12 November 2018.
90 Niña Calleja, ‘CBCP Wants Anti-Discrimination Bill Cleansed on Provisions on Gay
Rights’, Inquirer.Net, 7 December 2011, <www.newsinfo.inquirer.net/106981/cbcp-wants
-anti-discrimination-bill-cleansed-of-provisions-on-gay-rights>, 5 November 2018.

might punish the Catholic Church for not officiating same-sex marriage.91 The
CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family and Life also lobbied for the removal
of the LGBTQ provision from the bill.92 In August 2012, Ifugao Representative
Teddy Baguilat revealed that the bill was being delayed by some senators,
including Sotto, who wanted to remove the LGBTQ provisions.93 Ultimately,
the bill was not passed.
It is no surprise that these pronouncements coincided with Benedict XVI’s
papacy, seen as a traditionalist and staunch defender of religious freedom. In
2010, Benedict criticised equality laws in the UK for creating ‘limitations on
the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs’.94
Two years later, he addressed American bishops on the ‘grave threats’ of ‘radi-
cal’ and ‘reductive secularism’ which threatens to ‘delegitimise the Church’s
participation in public debate’ in the United States.95 To address this, the for-
mer pope saw the ‘need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic
laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture’.96 He
also recognised ‘certain attempts’ to ‘limit’ freedom of religion, seen for in-
stance in ‘concerted efforts … to deny the right of conscientious objection on
the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in
intrinsically evil practices’.97
Proponents of gender equality did not give up in the 16th Congress (2013–
2016) during which time multiple anti-discrimination bills were filed. This pe-
riod coincided with worldwide advancements in LGBTQ rights. Statements by
Pope Francis, elected in 2013, were appropriated by various sectors to suggest
that the Catholic Church was shifting its attitude towards LGBTQs.98 In 2015,
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid.
93 Manila Bulletin, ‘Anti-Discrimination Bill’s OK Delayed’, Yahoo! Philippines, 27 August 2012,
<www.ph.news.yahoo.com/anti-discrimination-bill-ok-delayed-105316925.html>,
6 November 2018.
94 Riazat Butt, ‘Pope Condemns Gay Equality Laws Ahead of First UK Visit’, The Guardian,
1 February 2010, <www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/01/pope-condemns-british-
equality-bill>, 13 December 2018.
95 Benedict XVI, ‘Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Bishops of the United States
of America on Their ‘Ad Limina’ Visit’, 19 January 2012, <w2.vatican.va/content/benedict
-xvi/en/speeches/2012/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20120119_bishops-usa.html>,
13 December 2018.
96 Ibid.
97 Ibid.
98 B BC News, ‘Pope Francis: Who Am I to Judge Gay People?’, BBC News, 29 July 2013, <www
.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23489702>, 23 September 2018.

Ireland and the United States legalised same-sex marriage.99 Responding to

these developments, the CBCP released two pastoral letters addressing the
pending Anti-Discrimination Bill and same-sex marriage.
On 3 March 2015, the CBCP issued the ‘Pastoral Moral Guidance on the
Anti-Discrimination Bill’, penned by its president, Archbishop Socrates
Villegas. The Catholic hierarchy began the statement saying that any bill which
‘counters discrimination’ is a ‘gesture of charity’.100 Taking their cue from Pope
Francis’ vision of a church of ‘mercy and compassion’ and recognising LGBTQs’
‘treatment as outcasts’ and ‘relegation to the category of inferior members of
the Church’, the CBCP asked priests to look after the welfare of their communi-
ties.101 They also said that there should be ‘zero-tolerance’ for bullying against
LGBTQs in Catholic institutions.
At this point, the bishops also invoked religious freedom in reserving the
right to determine criteria for their priests and to ‘exclude even on the basis of
sexual orientation and gender identity’ if these become ‘hindrances’ to their fi-
delity.102 Moreover, the bishops reserved the right for Catholic schools to exer-
cise their academic freedom in determining admission and retention policies,
while reiterating that no one should be ‘demeaned, embarrassed, or humili-
ated’ based on sexual orientation and gender identity.103
In these statements, religious freedom was framed by the Church hierarchy
in defence of the interests of the dominant religion. The legal developments
around the world favouring same-sex marriage posed a challenge on religious
groups that did not sanction it. The clergy in the Philippines were aware of the
legal implications of gender equality and same-sex marriage on their actions.
In a way, to invoke religious freedom to uphold the Catholic Church’s religious
practices was a reasonable move that veered away from the moral panic over a
culture of death that characterised its reactions in previous years.
Around this time, the CBCP’s discourse about religious freedom was accom-
panied by its defence of Filipino values. There is a striking parallelism here. Both
religious freedom and the defence of Filipino values were about resisting that
99 Henry McDonald, ‘Ireland Becomes First Country to Legalise Gay Marriage by Popular
Vote’, The Guardian, 23 May 2015, <www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/23/gay
-marriage-ireland-yes-vote>, 12 November 2018; Adam Liptak, ‘Supreme Court Ruling
Makes Same-Sex Marriage a Right Nationwide’, The New York Times, 26 June 2015, <www
.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html>, 12 November 2018.
100 Socrates Villegas, ‘Pastoral Moral Guidance on the ANTI-DISCRIMINATION BILL’,
CBCP News, 3 March 2015, <www.cbcpnews.com/cbcpnews/?p=52152>, 7 November 2018.
101 Ibid.
102 Ibid.
103 Ibid.

which was threatening the moral fibre of Philippine society: Western v alues. In
criticising the Anti-Discrimination Bill, the CBCP questioned whether the bill
was a ‘pernicious form of “colonisation”’ and ‘importation … of values, behav-
ioural norms and attitudes that the West has championed and peddled’.104 This
was referring to Pope Francis’ warning of an ‘ideological colonisation’ of the
family during his visit to the Philippines in January 2015, seen then as a veiled
reference to proposals legalising same-sex marriage and contraception use.105
Several Catholic bishops echoed this sentiment after Ireland voted to legalise
same-sex marriage on 22 May 2015. In the same year, the US Supreme Court
also voted to legalise same-sex marriage nationwide. In a statement, Malolos
bishop Jose Oliveros asked Filipinos not to jump on the bandwagon of same-
sex marriage as the country has its own ‘values, tradition, and Constitution’ to
follow.106
4.3 New Developments

On 18 May 2015, openly gay lawyer Jesus Nicardo Falcis III filed a landmark
case with the Philippine Supreme Court to legalise same-sex marriage. His
move was to declare the provisions of the Family Code defining marriage be-
tween a man and a woman as unconstitutional.107 While shifting the battle
for same-sex marriage from the legislature to the judiciary, Falcis used a re-
ligious freedom argument, among others, in favour of LGBTQ rights. He ar-
gued that ‘individuals belonging to religious denominations that believe in
same-sex marriage exist and are denied of the right to found a family in accor-
dance to their religious beliefs’,108 citing the LGBTs Christian Church and the
Metropolitan Community Church as among the denominations that believe
in and perform same-sex marriages in the country. The lawyer also pointed
out that ‘such religious weddings have been denied recognition under civil law
104 Ibid.
105 Joshua J. McElwee, ‘Francis warns against ‘Ideological Colonization’ of Family, reaffirms
Contraception Ban’, National Catholic Reporter, 16 January 2015, <www.ncronline.org/news/
vatican/francis-warns-against-ideological-colonization-family-reaffirms-contraception
-ban>, 7 November 2018.
106 CBCPNews, ‘PH shouldn’t jump on ‘Gay Marriage Bandwagon’—Bishops’, 27 May 2015,
CBCP News, <www.cbcpnews.com/cbcpnews/?p=56998>, 5 November 2018.
107 Lian Buan, ‘Your Guide to the Supreme Court Oral Arguments on Same-Sex Marriage’,
Rappler, 17 June 2018, <www.rappler.com/nation/205106-supreme-court-same-sex-marriage
-oral-arguments-guide>, 16 November 2018.
108 Falcis III v. Civil Registrar-General, 19 May 2015, Supreme Court of the Philippines
(pending), G.R. No. 217910, p. 27, <www.freethinking.me/wp-content/uploads/GR_No
_217910_Jesus_Nicardo_M_Falcis_III_vs_Civil_Registrar_General.pdf>.

unlike the religious convictions of Catholics and Muslims’.109 The Supreme

Court heard oral arguments on the petition three years later, amid a new po-
litical climate. It was at this point that the religious freedom as an argument
took a turn in favour of sexual minorities.
A year later, in 2016, the first transgender was elected to the House of
Representatives, Bataan representative Geraldine Roman. Roman filed her
own anti-discrimination measure in the 17th Congress (2016–2019). Her bill
and other similar ones filed by her colleagues were consolidated into the
SOGIE Equality Bill. Senator Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel filed the counterpart
measure in the Senate. Roman made it clear that the bill is not Bible-based but
rather based on the Constitution:
What we’re talking about is a group of people whose civil rights are being
violated, and we as public servants are sworn to defend these civil rights.
Not all are Christian, not all are believers. I refuse to enter into a doctrinal
discussion. We have to talk about civil laws and rights and that’s what
we’re going to do.110
Nevertheless, Roman also maintained that the freedom of religion is guaranteed

under the Constitution and in the bill’s declaration of policy. The bill passed
the House unanimously on third reading on 20 September 2017. This, however,
was not the fate of the Civil Partnership Act, which was filed in Congress in the
same year. It was supposed to recognise same-sex civil unions. Although it was
declared a priority measure, the bill did not progress because of unexpected
changes in the leadership of Congress.111 Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, known to
be an ally of the Catholic Church, took over.112
109 Ibid., p. 28.

110 Audrey N. Carpio, ‘Geraldine Roman Is Pushing More than Gender Boundaries’, Esquire
Philippines, 15 February 2017, <www.esquiremag.ph/politics/geraldine-roman-a1521
-20170215-lfrm3>, 12 November 2018.
111 Ben Rosario, ‘Bills on Civil Marriage of Same Sex, Add’l Grounds for Annulment Now
Priority of House—Alvarez,’ Manila Bulletin, 3 January 2018, <news.mb.com.ph/2018/
01/03/bills-on-civil-marriage-of-same-sex-addl-grounds-for-annulment-now-priority-of
-house-alvarez/>, 9 November 2018.
112 Gemma Garcia, ‘No-El, Death Penalty, Divorce at Same Sex Marriage Malabo Na Sa
Kamara’, PangMasa, 31 July 2018, <www.philstar.com/pang-masa/police-metro/2018/07/
31/1838333/no-el-death-penalty-divorce-same-sex-marriage-malabo-na-sa-kamara>,
12 November 2018.

Such legal strategies reflect how minorities might react to majoritarian na-
tionalist tendencies by invoking the liberal democratic ideals of citizenship.113
In a lecture about religious conflict in India, Gupta observes that ‘when a reli-
gious minority agitates in democratic societies, it is with the ostensible aim of
seeking parity on cultural terms with the majority population’.114
Different religious sectors also lent their voice for gender equality. Many of
these statements invoked the welfare of sexual minorities. In early 2017, the
Philippine Independent Church, known to be progressive on sexuality, issued
a statement to support the SOGIE Bill: ‘We believe that the Church must
openly embrace God’s people of all sexes, sexual orientations, gender identi-
ties and expressions (SSOGIE) as we embark on a journey toward a just and
peaceful world.’115 Also, students from prominent Catholic universities in-
voked the ‘Christian values of love and acceptance’.116 They released a state-
ment urging the Senate to pass the SOGIE Equality Bill as soon as possible.
Celebrities joined the chorus too. Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach, a Filipina,
posted on Instagram that ‘there is a misconception that the bill goes against
our religious beliefs, our religious freedom’.117 In a Facebook post, Senator
Hontiveros-Baraquel argued that the SOGIE Equality Bill and religious free-
dom are not at odds with each other since respect and love for neighbour are
the teachings of God and good religion. Her post even included an image of
Pope Francis with his now-famous quote: ‘If someone is gay and searches for
the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?’118
These initiatives point to the role of religious freedom in opening up dis-
cursive space for dissent and alternative viewpoints.119 Using it in this manner
is a countercultural move to contest not just existing laws but also prevailing
113 Dipankar Gupta, ‘Citizens versus People: The Politics of Majoritarianism and
Marginalization in Democratic India’, 68:1 Sociology of Religion (2007), pp. 27–44.
114 Ibid., p. 30.
115 OutrageMag.com, ‘Church must embrace People of all SOGIE, says IFI in historic LGBT
Statement’, Outrage, 28 March 2017, <www.outragemag.com/church-must-embrace
-people-of-all-sogie-says-ifi-in-historic-lgbt-statement/>, 29 January 2019.
116 Margaret Claire Layug, ‘Catholic Student Councils to Senators: End Debate, Pass SOGIE’,
GMA News Online, 8 August 2018, <www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/663468/
catholic-student-councils-to-senators-end-debate-pass-sogie/story/>, 9 November 2018.
117 Kate Matriano, ‘Pia Wurtzbach: SOGIE Bill Doesn’t Go against One’s Religious Beliefs,
Freedom’, Inquirer.Net, 14 August 2018, <www.entertainment.inquirer.net/288409/
pia-wurtzbach-sogie-bill-doesnt-go-against-ones-religious-beliefs-religious-freedom>,
9 November 2018.
118 Risa Hontiveros, Facebook, 11 March 2018, <www.facebook.com/hontiverosrisa/photos/
a.244112475656/10160450243045657/?type=3&theater.>, 12 November 2018.
119 Erik Borgman, ‘The Enduring Importance of the Freedom of Religion’, 2 Concilium
International Journal of Theology (2016), pp. 97–106.

oralities. In effect what is emphasised is the ‘freedom from government-

m
imposed religious belief or practice’.120 The argument has thus been that the
religious freedom of churches that support and solemnise gay marriage is
violated by ‘privileging a religious conception of marriage favoured by some
religious traditions but not universally shared by all mainline religions’.121
Interestingly, during the debates on the Reproductive Health Bill, progressive
Catholics and Protestants who supported it have also invoked the religious
freedom of non-Christians.122
In spite of this religious support, the public sphere was dominated by the
religious critics of gender equality and same-sex marriage. In the Senate,
no less than the Evangelical convert Senator Manny Pacquiao challenged
Hontiveros-Baraquel on the bill.123 The dominant discourse once again in-
voked religious freedom. According to CBCP lawyer Imbong, the ‘grounds for
penalties for discriminatory practices’ found in the bill ‘are “subjective” and
fails to protect religious and academic freedom of institutions’.124 Pro-Life
Philippines Foundation, Inc., a group whose mission seeks to ‘build a nation
that respects, defends and cares for human life … by working closely with the
Catholic Church’,125 released a statement in 2017 citing the violation of reli-
gious freedom as among their reasons for opposing the bill. They cited a possi-
ble ‘scenario’ wherein Catholic parishes would get apprehended if they do not
recognise ‘gay militant organisations’.126 The statement also cited US-based
120 Debra L. DeLaet and Rachel Paine Caufield, ‘Gay Marriage as a Religious Right: Reframing
the Legal Debate over Gay Marriage in the United States’, 40:3 Polity (2008), p. 318.
121 Ibid., p. 300.
122 Brian Doce, ‘Revisiting the Philippine Reproductive Health Politics via the Lens of Public
Theology: The Role of Progressive Catholic and Protestant Sectors’, 12:2 Politics and
Religion Journal (2018), pp. 285–307.
123 Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez, ‘Pacquiao Argues vs. Anti-Discrimination Bill: Bible Does
Not Allow Cross-Dressing’, GMA News Online, 13 February 2017, <www.gmanetwork.com/
news/news/nation/599412/pacquiao-argues-vs-anti-discrimination-bill-bible-does-not
-allow-cross-dressing/story/>, 28 November 2018.
124 Lexanne O. Garcia, ‘Protect Religious Freedom amid Push for Anti-Discrimination Bill—
CBCP Lawyer’, The Varsitarian, 30 August 2017, <www.varsitarian.net/witness/20170830/
protect-religious-freedom-amid-push-for-anti-discrimination-bill-cbcp-lawyer>,
27 November 2018.
125 Pro-Life Philippines Foundation, Inc., ‘Vision/Mission’, www.prolife.org.ph/?page_id=106,
accessed 17 January 2019.
126 Pro-Life Philippines Foundation, Inc., Position paper of Pro-Life Philippines Foun-
dations, Inc. on Anti-Discrimination Bills on SOGIE ‘An Act Prohibiting Discrimi-
nation On the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression
And Providing Penalties Therefore’, 25 September 2017, www.facebook.com/ProLife
Philippines/posts/read-and-shareposition-paperofpro-life-philippines-foundation
-incon-anti-discrim/1898193433541466/, accessed 17 January 2019.

groups Focus on the Family and the National Association for Research &
Therapy of Homosexuality (which promotes gay conversion therapy), in refut-
ing LGBTQ essentialist arguments. This statement was also posted in the CBCP
Episcopal Commission on the Laity’s website. Protestant counterparts echoed
the same idea. For example, the Mindanao Evangelical Leaders Council re-
leased a statement against the SOGIE Equality Bill and the Civil Partnerships
Act, arguing that these will ‘discriminate’ the ‘majority of Filipinos’ whose life-
styles will be ‘disoriented’ and rights violated.127 In early 2018, the Coalition
of Christians for Righteousness, Justice, and Truth held a protest outside the
Senate against the SOGIE Equality and same-sex marriage bills. The coalition is
composed of prominent Evangelical groups including Jesus is Lord Church, the
Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, Intercessors for the Philippines,
Philippines for Jesus Movement, and Nameless Faceless Servant. Senator Joel
Villanueva, son of Jesus is Lord founder Eddie Villanueva, joined the rally, say-
ing that a ‘genuine’ anti-discrimination bill would entail not just the prohibi-
tion of LGBTQ discrimination, but the protection of religious freedom as well.128
Interestingly, the senator used to be a co-author of the bill. But now he has in-
voked religious freedom because he did not want the bill to ‘cause harm to our
rights to exercise our own beliefs without compromising the rights of others’.129
In a separate interview, Villanueva said that religious preaching against homo-
sexual activity may be considered a discriminatory act under the measure.130
5 Weaponising Religious Freedom
The turn of events testifies to the weaponisation of religious freedom against

sexual minorities. Here we use weaponisation in a very specific manner. In
our view, weaponisation is the most appropriate way to characterize how
principles meant to protect liberties especially of minorities have been used
to advance the interests of an assumed majority—the dominant religion and
127 Jigger Jerusalem, ‘Church Leaders Protest vs Pro-LGBT Bills Anew’, Sun Star Philippines,
18 December 2017, <www.sunstar.com.ph/article/410363>, 9 November 2018.
128 Camille Balagtas, ‘Senator Supports Anti-Discrimination Bill to Protect LGBT Rights’, Sun
Star Philippines, 17 November 2016, <www.sunstar.com.ph/article/110502>, 9 November
2018.
129 ‘Villanueva Pushes for Genuine Anti-Discrimination Bill’, 7 March 2018, www.senate.gov
.ph/press_release/2018/0307_villanueva1.asp, accessed 29 January 2019.
130 A BS-CBN News, ‘Headstart: Should Companies, Schools Allow Cross-Dressing? | Part 2’,
YouTube, 30 August 2018, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmfPU88pCMs>, 12 November
2018.

the Christian Filipino nation. Weaponisation in this light is thus majoritar-

ian, which emphasises ‘exclusivity as a “people”’ over ‘inclusive citizenship’.131
This means that although the Supreme Court has upheld religious freedom
in terms of individual liberties, it has been deployed with political valence by
various majoritarian groups. Crucial in this regard has been the role not just of
influential Christian legislators but also their wider Christian alliances in civil
society. It is for this reason that our study has given attention to the discourses
deployed by Christian groups over time.132
We recognise that ‘weaponisation’ can connote different meanings. It might
evoke, for example, inauthentic or deceptive use of religious freedom. Thus,
the groups we describe here might find ‘weaponisation’ provocative and un-
helpful in bridging understanding. One way forward is to simply describe the
‘debate’ in terms of the ‘politicisation’ of religious freedom, highlighting how
both the dominant religious majority and sexual minorities have taken differ-
ent interpretations on the matter. In our view, however, characterising the ten-
sion in this manner will fail to apprehend the power asymmetry at play. We
also use the term weaponisation in light of its current usage in the Philippines.
Journalist Maria Ressa uses weaponisation to describe the instrumentalisation
of the internet and social media in carrying out a sophisticated disinforma-
tion campaign meant to influence the 2016 elections. Refer also to Ong and
Cabañes’ study on the ‘architects of networked disinformation’ for a more de-
tailed discussion on this well-oiled (and funded) operation.133
What then accounts for the weaponisation of religious freedom? There are
two pertinent contexts to consider. The first is the fate of the Catholic Church
131 Gupta, supra note 113, p. 31.

132 A parallel development in the US concerns Christian-owned businesses that have ap-
pealed to religious freedom to discriminate against LGBTQ employees and customers. For
Gasper, when ‘the practices of private religion and public entities like corporations inter-
sect … courts err toward a reading of statutory rights that safeguards the rights of vulner-
able individuals protected under the law’. Ravitch observes that using religious freedom
to discriminate against sexual minorities is a recent development in the United States.
Gasper supra note 17, pp. 396–397; Frank S. Ravitch, ‘Competing Freedoms: Freedom of
Religion and Freedom of Sexual and Reproductive Liberty in Pluralistic Societies’, 9:2
Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice (2017), pp. 191–197.
133 Maria Ressa, ‘Propaganda War: Weaponizing the Internet’, Rappler, 3 October 2016, <www
.rappler.com/nation/148007-propaganda-war-weaponizing-internet>, 23 January 2019;
Jonathan Corpus Ong and Jason Vincent A. Cabañes, Architects of Networked Disinformation:
Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines, 2018, www
.newtontechfordev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ARCHITECTS-OF-NETWORKED
-DISINFORMATION-FULL-REPORT.pdf, accessed 24 January 2019; Karen EC Lecy and
David Merritt Johns, ‘When open data is a Trojan Horse: The weaponization of transpar-
ency in science and governance’, Big Data & Society (January–June 2016), pp. 1–6.

during the debates about the Reproductive Health (RH) Law in previous years.
The second is the dominant character of Christianity in the Philippines, which
may be diverse but as a whole, still remains conservative when it comes to
sexual norms.
5.1 Religious Freedom and Reproductive Health

When the RH Law was being proposed in Congress years ago, Catholic lead-
ers sought the help of sympathetic intellectuals to advance their cause. This
coincided the many actions by the clergy that reeked of moral panic. In his
comprehensive study of population policy since the 1970s, Leviste argues that
the Church’s penetration of the state apparatus and civil society through allied
intellectuals has led to the ‘promotion of a Catholic moral teaching-centred
stance’134 on population policy. It was also these allies who immediately filed
cases (14 to be exact) before the Supreme Court in 2013 challenging the consti-
tutionality of the RH Law.135
Through these allied intellectuals, the Catholic Church has in effect ap-
pealed to the religious freedom of the majority. One of their arguments was
that the law violated freedom of religion and the right to free speech, since
Filipinos, ‘majority of whom are Catholics’,136 would be forced to pay taxes that
would be spent for contraceptives, the use of which is against Church teaching.
The petitioners claimed that a conscientious objector’s duty to refer a pa-
tient to another health professional who can provide reproductive health ser-
vices is still a violation of religious freedom. This was a strategic move. Later
on, when the RH Law’s constitutionality was questioned before the Supreme
Court, eight provisions were eventually declared unconstitutional, including
the duty to refer. Furthermore, the Philippine Supreme Court extended this
provision to all hospitals, enabling institutions or ‘non-natural persons’ to be
conscientious objectors.137
We note, however, that this is not necessarily an example of weaponisa-
tion of religious freedom against minorities. No minorities were deliberately
targeted by the resistance of the Catholic Church towards the Reproductive
Health Law. But it foreshadowed the work of the Church and its allies in resist-
ing same-sex marriage and gender equality. In a way, these groups were suc-
cessful in invoking religious freedom in this manner. Although the RH Law was
134 Leviste, supra note 63, p. 25.

135 Marilen J. Dañguilan, The RH Bill Story: Contentions and Compromises (Quezon City:
Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2018).
136 Ibid., p. 489.
137 Human Rights Resource Centre, supra note 44, p. 381.

eventually passed, a few of its provisions were struck down as unconstitutional

in the name of the religious freedom of medical practitioners.138 That these
provisions were struck down was in fact to uphold the individual liberties of
medical practitioners, which is arguably in keeping with how the country’s
Supreme Court has historically understood religious freedom.139
5.2 Militant Christianity

That influential Christian leaders are behind the weaponisation of religious
freedom is in itself telling. They, not the state, have been at the forefront of
resisting initiatives for same-sex marriage and gender equality.140 Thus, that
religious freedom has been weaponised against sexual minorities, lies in the
overriding character of Christianity in Philippine society.
Although the majority of Filipinos (81 per cent) profess Catholicism, 11 per
cent belong to other Christian denominations.141 In spite of the dominance of
Catholicism, an argument can be made for the Church’s decline in the public
sphere amid religious diversification in Philippine society. This is exemplified
in the heated debates over—and eventual passage of—the RH Law. Statements
such as denying Holy Communion to supportive RH legislators were indica-
tive of the Church’s ‘institutional panic’ over their ‘waning influence in civil
society’.142 President Rodrigo Duterte’s victory and continued popularity de-
spite his ceaseless attacks against the clergy highlight the Church’s increasingly
vulnerable position in the public sphere.143
This comes with the ascendancy of other Christian groups, whose visibil-
ity is remarkable in different ways. The rise of prominent Christian churches
is marked not just by their buildings around the country. Evangelical mega-
churches like Jesus is Lord and the indigenous Iglesia Ni Cristo are playing
138 Buena Bernal, ‘SC declares RH Law constitutional’, Rappler, 8 April 2014, <www.rappler
.com/nation/54946-supreme-court-rh-law-constitutional>, 16 November 2018; Dañguilan,
supra note 135.
139 Cornelio, supra note 16.
140 This is a unique development in contrast to other states in Southeast Asia where states
politicise religion to assert legitimacy. In these states, it is either a dominant religion is
constitutionally privileged or religion itself is deemed as a threat to the state. Although
a typical issue might be the freedom of conversion, politicising religion may also involve
moral panic over gender equality. Neo, supra note 61.
141 World Population Review, Philippines Population 2018, www.worldpopulationreview.com/
countries/philippines-population, accessed 15 November 2018.
142 Raffin and Cornelio, supra note 66.
143 Jayeel S. Cornelio, ‘Duterte and the Hypocritical Church’, Rappler, 8 December 2018, <www
.rappler.com/thought-leaders/218396-duterte-hypocritical-church>, 17 January 2019.

different roles in politics. For example, they either support candidates or field
their own during elections.
A militant character144 is discernible among all of them in terms of their
evangelistic fervour and fundamentalist approach to the Scriptures. Their fun-
damentalism translates to their conservative outlook with regard to divorce,
homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and abortion.145 In this way, these other
Christian denominations share an overlapping consensus with the Catholic
Church. We have noted their statements above, which, in some cases, have
been echoed by conservative legislators themselves. Manny Pacquiao, Joel
Villanueva, and Benny Abante are some of these religious legislators. They
have in their own ways invoked religious freedom in the name of the majority.
To do so is strategic in a society that remains conservative when it comes
to the issues of the LGBTQ community. It is a useful (and even uncompli-
cated) communication model. It harps on the values of the conservative mo-
rality of the majority of Filipinos in relation to sexuality. At the onset of this
paper, we showed how the public’s negative attitudes toward same-sex mar-
riage and gender equality complicate the facile claim that Philippine society
is LGBTQ-friendly. The discursive move effortlessly relies upon the normative
dispositions of the majority. The majority, it must be emphasised, is not imag-
ined. Public opinion is not entirely sold to gender equality.
That this is the case is also why to appeal to the majority is to invoke essen-
tialist values about what it means to be Filipino. The heteronormative family
remains ideal, a virtue in itself that resonates with the Scriptural readings of
different religious groups.146 In our discussions above, religious leaders have
warned against the influence of Western values as a result of global shifts fa-
vouring same-sex marriage. In this light, the weaponisation of religious free-
dom in itself manifests religious nationalism, or the belief that the Philippines
is a Christian country that must uphold Christian values and principles.147
144 This militant outlook is seen in their active lobbying efforts on policies related to these
issues. But their militancy is more evident in their expansionist ethos—exemplified by
Jesus Is Lord and Iglesia Ni Cristo’s aggressive international church-building and forays
into civil society which parallel and even rival the State. This ‘triumphalist’ streak is indic-
ative of aspirations to match the Catholic Church’s still-pervasive and deeply-entrenched
influence in Filipino life. Jayeel S. Cornelio, ‘Religion and Civic Engagement: The Case
of Iglesia Ni Cristo in the Philippines’, 45:1 Religion, State & Society (2017), pp. 23–38;
Jayeel S. Cornelio, ‘Jesus Is Lord: The Indigenization of Megachurch Christianity in the
Philippines’, in T. Chong (ed.), Pentecostal Megachurches in Southeast Asia: Negotiating
Class, Consumption and the Nation, (ISEAS—Yusof Ishak Institute, 2018), pp. 127–155.
146 Ibid.
147 Francisco, supra note 84.

By invoking such values, these Christian groups exhibit majoritarianism by

claiming “to represent ‘the people,’” and in turn characterising minorities
as ‘enemies of the nation-state’.148 This disposition inevitably excludes not
just people of other faiths but also those who subscribe to more progressive
Christian worldviews. The casualty of weaponising religious freedom is thus
clear. The free market of ideas, beliefs, and practices—the very assumption of
religious freedom—is in the end restricted.149
The discourses that support these manifestations of religious nationalism
also warrant a closer look. While these Christian groups have framed their ac-
tions as defending traditional Filipino values, their discursive use of religious
freedom can be traced to transnational sources, such as Hess and Benedict XVI.
Even the CBCP’s cry of ‘ideological colonisation’ is borrowed from Pope Francis.
Sources refuting essentialist arguments for LGBTQs have been culled from
US-based groups, as seen in the Pro-Life Philippines position paper. This is
similar to what happened during the RH law debates. Estrada-Claudio points
out how anti-RH groups drew on international conservative sources (mostly
American) for help in defending their position.150
6 Conclusion
Whether the weaponisation of religious freedom is effective in arresting initia-

tives for same-sex marriage and gender equality needs to be assessed in the
long run.151 As we have spelled out in the introduction, how far these initiatives
go is largely shaped by public opinion. In spite of strong institutional r esistance
148 Gupta, supra note 113, p. 30.

149 Hurd, supra note 53.
150 Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, ‘Voices and Choices in Reproductive Rights: Scholarship and
Activism’, in C. Johnson, et al (eds.), The Social Sciences in the Asian Century, (Canberra,
Australia: ANU Press, 2015), pp. 97–116.
151 After two days of hearing oral arguments in June 2018, the Supreme Court has yet to
decide on Jesus Falcis III’s same-sex marriage petition. On 7 August 2018, the case suf-
fered another setback when the Supreme Court issued a show cause order asking Falcis
to explain why he did not submit the required memorandum by the Court’s 26 July 2018
deadline. Meanwhile, the 17th Congress (2016–2019) failed to pass the SOGIE Equality Bill
and the Civil Partnerships Act. The House of Representatives passed their version of the
SOGIE Equality Bill in September 2017, but conservative Christian senators Vicente Sotto
III, Manny Pacquiao, and Joel Villanueva successfully blocked the measure’s Senate coun-
terpart. Both bills have since been refiled in the 18th Congress (2019–2022). But advocates
may have a more difficult time this time as Benny Abante and Eddie Villanueva have been
elected to the House and have secured key leadership positions.

from the Catholic Church, the Reproductive Health Bill was passed into law
given the massive public support for it. At the very least, what is discernible
is that the generational and cultural shifts that are taking place in Philippine
society open enough space for gender issues to become policy concerns.
But it is not necessarily easy. Religious freedom, as this study has shown, can
take on a different meaning when deployed by a dominant religious group. The
work of the Catholic Church, other Christian groups, and allies testifies to what
we have described above as the weaponisation of religious freedom against
sexual minorities. The move is made possible by appealing to the heteronor-
mative values of the majority, who are presumed to be conservative Christian.
The implicit assumption is that the LGBTQ community embodies Western val-
ues that are inimical to the sanctity of the family and the Christian nation.
Thus, the weaponisation of religious freedom manifests religious nationalism.
In effect, the interests of sexual minorities are silenced. This is even if
some of these LGBTQ individuals may in fact represent progressive forms of
Christianity. Thus, they are also religious minorities whose religious freedom
to pursue same-sex union, for example, is rejected in favour of the majority.
This raises a few fundamental questions about the future of religious freedom
in Philippine society. At one level, how will this reasoning be weighed by the
Supreme Court that has long interpreted religious freedom in the interest of
individual liberties?152 At another level, does the issue of gender equality and
same-sex marriage have to be fundamentally framed in terms of religious free-
dom? Doing so overlooks the existence of the religiously unaffiliated in the
LGBTQ community. This is why framing the whole issue as the lack of religious
freedom is not always helpful. In this light, that influential Christian leaders
have defined the move for same-sex marriage and gender inequality as an af-
front to the religious freedom of the majority has already limited the discursive
space. That same-sex marriage and gender equality are civil rights is down-
played as a result.
Both the dominant religious bloc and sexual minorities’ appeals to religious
freedom are manifestations of a society confronting the onus of diversity.
Amid shifting values, conservatives are fighting to protect their way of living by
using a liberal principle. In struggling for their rights, minorities have discov-
ered the potential of religious freedom in their toolkit. While the state has yet
to decide if and how LGBTQ rights are an issue of religious freedom, it would
have to listen closely not just to the arguments put forward by both sides but
to the signs of the times as well. It would also have to examine its own biases,
given the intimate and imbricated relationship between the country’s law and

the Catholic religion. How the Philippines moves forward on this issue serves
as an indication of how it imagines its secular liberal democratic project to be
in the face of a militant form of Christianity.
Acknowledgements
This is part of our ongoing research on gender and religion funded by the
Philippine Commission on Higher Education and the National Commission
for Culture and the Arts. An initial version of this article was presented at the
NUS-BYU conference ‘The Law and Politics of Freedom of Religion in Asia’
held in December 2018 at the National University of Singapore. We wish to
thank co-presenters and this article’s reviewers for their constructive feedback.

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Religion

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94 Human

Weaponising Religious Freedom: Same-Sex

Robbin Charles M. Dagle

Philippines – religious freedom – gender equality – same-sex marriage – LGBTQ

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/18710328-13021146

1 Introduction: LGBTQ-Friendly Society?

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

7 Cheryll Soriano, ‘Constructing Collectivity in Diversity: Online Political Mobilization of a

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

community. Recently, unprecedented moves have been initiated to advance

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

3 Religious Freedom and LGBTQ Rights

Religious freedom is presented in the literature in two ways. Although in prin-

3.1 Whose Interests?

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

­ ertinent international legal frameworks, states are expected to be the guaran-

21 Ibid., p. 47.

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

of sub-nationalities and ethnicity’.31 Given the region’s immense religious

3.2 Adjudicating Freedoms

31 Ibid., pp. 72–73.

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

3.3 The Role of Non-State Actors

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

difficult.56 The Singapore case, as described above, testifies to this point.

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

public sphere. We note Moyn’s64 discussion on the conservative Catholic and

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

4.1 Moral Panic

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

Meanwhile, Rosales’ bill fell victim to political manoeuvrings, as well as ac-

73 Lagablab, “House Committee on Human Rights Chairperson Calls Homosexuality

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

4.2 Religious Freedom, the Dominant Religion, and Filipino Values

85 Jimenez, supra note 83.

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

Ireland and the United States legalised same-sex marriage.99 Responding to

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

4.3 New Developments

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

unlike the religious convictions of Catholics and Muslims’.109 The Supreme

Nevertheless, Roman also maintained that the freedom of religion is guaranteed

109 Ibid., p. 28.

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

­ oralities. In effect what is emphasised is the ‘freedom from government-

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

5 Weaponising Religious Freedom

The turn of events testifies to the weaponisation of religious freedom against

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

the Christian Filipino nation. Weaponisation in this light is thus majoritar-

131 Gupta, supra note 113, p. 31.

Religion and Human Rights 14 (2019) 65–94

5.1 Religious Freedom and Reproductive Health

134 Leviste, supra note 63, p. 25.

7 Cheryll Soriano, ‘Constructing Collectivity in Diversity: Online Political Mobilization of a

ertinent international legal frameworks, states are expected to be the guaran-

21 Ibid., p. 47.

31 Ibid., pp. 72–73.

73 Lagablab, “House Committee on Human Rights Chairperson Calls Homosexuality

85 Jimenez, supra note 83.

109 Ibid., p. 28.

oralities. In effect what is emphasised is the ‘freedom from government-

131 Gupta, supra note 113, p. 31.

134 Leviste, supra note 63, p. 25.

148 Gupta, supra note 113, p. 30.

152 Cornelio, supra note 16.