More tomboy, more bakla than we admit

In the Philippines, those who do not fall neatly within the dictated norms of gender and sexuality have often been rendered invisible, if not condemned outright by a mainstream society heavily steeped in westernized gender roles and Catholic notions of sexual propriety. Yet such individuals have existed throughout Philippine history, from the androgynous bayog and asog shamans of precolonial times to members of the Chinese community persecuted for sodomy in Spanish Manila, lesbian activists of the last few decades striving for recognition within a greater feminist movement, to transpinay (transgender) organizers and multiple local, regional, and national spokespeople, to contemporary gay and "bi" men representing themselves on the Web.