Ang Ladlad
Encyclopedia
LADLAD is a Filipino
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, bisexual, and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

 (LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

) political party. It was founded on 21 September 2003, and is founded by Danton Remoto
Danton Remoto
Danton R. Remoto, Ph.D. is a Filipino writer, essayist, reporter, editor, columnist, and professor. Remoto was a first prize recipient at the ASEAN Letter-Writing Contest for Young People. The award made Remoto a scholar at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. As a professor,...

, Associate Professor of English at Ateneo de Manila University
Ateneo de Manila University
The Ateneo de Manila University is a private teaching and research university run by the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It began in 1859 when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, to the Jesuits...

.

The organization's thrust is toward human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, and the organization is fighting for equal rights among all Filipinos, whether they are LGBT or not.

The Commission on Elections
Commission on Elections (Philippines)
The Commission on Elections, or COMELEC, is one of the three constitutional commissions of the Philippines. Its principal role is to enforce all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of elections, initiatives, referendums, and recalls....

 denied LADLAD's petition to be allowed to run in the 2010 elections, on the grounds of "immorality", However, on 12 January 2010, the Supreme Court granted a temporary restraining order, thereby allowing LADLAD to participate in this year's elections. In the 2007 elections
Philippine general election, 2007
Legislative and local elections were held in the Philippines on May 14, 2007. Positions contested included half the seats in the Senate, which are elected for six-year terms, and all the seats in the House of Representatives, who were elected for three-year terms...

, LADLAD was previously disqualified for failing to prove they had nationwide membership.

On 8 April 2010, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the Philippines
The Supreme Court of the Philippines is the Philippines' highest judicial court, as well as the court of last resort. The court consists of 14 Associate Justices and 1 Chief Justice...

 allows LADLAD to join the elections.

The party received 113,187 votes or 0.37% (excluding votes from Lanao del Sur
Lanao del Sur
Lanao del Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao . Its capital is Marawi City and borders Lanao del Norte to the north, Bukidnon to the east, and Maguindanao and Cotabato to the south. To the southwest lies Illana Bay, an arm of the Moro Gulf...

), below the optional 2% threshold and was not able to win a seat in Congress.

Programs and platforms

LADLAD has the following platforms:
  1. Re-filing of the Anti-Discrimination Bill that gives LGBT Filipinos equal opportunities in employment and equal treatment in schools, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, entertainment centers, and government offices.
  2. Re-filing of the bill to repeal the Anti-Vagrancy Law that some unscrupulous policemen use to extort bribes from gay men without ID cards;
  3. Setting up of micro-finance and livelihood projects for poor and handicapped LGBT Filipinos;
  4. Setting up of centers for Golden Gays, or old and abandoned LGBTs, as well as young ones driven out of their homes. The centers will also offer legal aid and counseling, as well as information about LGBT issues, HIV-AIDS, and reproductive health. These centers will be set up initially in the key cities/metropolitan areas of the Philippines -- Baguio, National Capital Region, Cebu
    Cebu
    Cebu is a province in the Philippines, consisting of Cebu Island and 167 surrounding islands. It is located to the east of Negros, to the west of Leyte and Bohol islands...

     and Davao
    Davao
    Davao refers to several closely related places in Mindanao in the Philippines. The term is used most often to refer to the city.*Davao Region, an administrative region*Davao del Norte province*Davao del Sur province*Davao Oriental province...

    .


Same-sex marriage is not part of the party's platform.

Electoral performance

Election Votes % Seats
2010
Philippine House of Representatives elections, 2010
The 2010 Philippine House of Representatives elections were held on May 10, 2010 to elect members to the House of Representatives of the Philippines to serve in the 15th Congress of the Philippines from June 30, 2010 to June 30, 2013...

114,120 0.38% 0
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