Team Pilipinas
Facing Inequality
By Kiki Tan
PUBLISHED: FEBRUARY 2010

Photo (above) courtesy of photographer Charles Meacham and blogger/writer Sarah Baxter. For more of the same, visit Walk with Pride at www.walkwithpridenow.com and http://wwpproject.wordpress.com/. Other photos from Team Pilipinas.

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As early as 2001, the idea to have a more unified body to represent the Philippines in international gatherings came when 22 Filipinos (including Bruce Amoroto, Cristina Laureta, Great Ancheta, Dennis Domingo, Eloi Hernandez, Buddy Caramat, Dee Mendoza, Nikos Dacanay, Lance Feliciano, and Oscar Atadero) came together to organize the Philippine delegation to the 2002 Gay Games in Sydney, Australia.  While nothing came of it then, the need came into focus again when the same people (and more) organized for the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago, USA; the 1st World Outgames; and the 1st International Conference of LGBT Rights in Montreal, Canada.  No wonder that during the 2002 and 2006 events, as well during the 2008 1st Asia Pacific Outgames in Melbourne, Australia, the main objective of the group was to organize and coordinate the participation of Filipino LGBTs in and promote international sporting, cultural and human rights events.

“Through sports and athleticism, Philippine culture and arts, ICT, multimedia culture and traditional media, TEAM PILIPINAS aims to involve young Filipinos in the critical and integrative analyses of 'human rights' and 'sexuality', drawing these from their everyday experiences, concretizing and localizing concepts and principles like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and the Yogyakarta Principles, as well as collective issues like poverty, development, gender justice, sexual and gender diversity and equality, sexual and reproductive health, globalization, peace, and the environment, all towards the creation of community-owned and community-led action.”

In October 2008, the Philippine Forum on Sports, Culture, Sexuality and Human Rights Inc. (a.k.a. TEAM PILIPINAS) was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit organization, aiming to “contribute to social change that is led and participated by young Filipinos from the grassroots who may or may not openly identify as lesbian, gay, bakla, bantut, bayot, bisexual, tomboy, transgender, transsexual, intersex, queer (LGBTIQ) or as another sexual or gender minority (SGM), and this shall be done through human rights and community development work.”

Specifically, “through sports and athleticism, Philippine culture and arts, ICT, multimedia culture and traditional media, TEAM PILIPINAS aims to involve young Filipinos in the critical and integrative analyses of 'human rights' and 'sexuality', drawing these from their everyday experiences, concretizing and localizing concepts and principles like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and the Yogyakarta Principles, as well as collective issues like poverty, development, gender justice, sexual and gender diversity and equality, sexual and reproductive health, globalization, peace, and the environment, all towards the creation of community-owned and community-led action.”

Now successfully organizing the Philippine delegation to the different events, TEAM PILIPINAS is actively involved in the boards of the Gay and Lesbian Asia Pacific Sport Association (GLISA Asia Pacific) and in the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA International), just as it was instrumental in the formation of Global South LGBTIQ Activists’ Forum and of LGBTI Pinoys for Calamity and Disaster Victims.

Worth focusing is that while the group was formed because of sports interest, TEAM PILIPINAS is more than a gathering of sports enthusiasts, as it has also “taken the lead in organizing local and international efforts that address issues like the inequality between the global South and the global North, the environment and the impact of climate change, and even the implication of the elections to the equal human rights of Filipino LGBTIs.”

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