507812

research-article2013

MCS36110.1177/0163443713507812Media, Culture & SocietySoriano

Article

Constructing collectivity
in diversity: online political
mobilization of a national
LGBT political party

Media, Culture & Society

2014, Vol 36(1) 2036
The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/0163443713507812
mcs.sagepub.com

Cheryll Ruth Reyes Soriano

De La Salle University, Philippines

Abstract
The internet has opened up a space for discussions of queer sexuality and the
interconnectivity made possible by internet technologies enables the active exchange
of queer ideologies across distant spaces that facilitate the formation of queer
counterpublics. But how do cyberqueer movements form a collectivity amid the
instability of individual and collective identities and the vulnerabilities and controls posed
by new technology mediation? Through the case study of Ladlad, a lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender (LGBT) political party in the Philippines, this paper examines the role
of online media in the construction of a queer movement. The article argues that the
process of connectivity facilitated by online spaces creates nodes of identification,
belonging, and support that symbolically form a collective site of resistance to sources
of oppressive power for LGBTs.
Keywords
cyberqueer, identity politics, LGBT, online media, political mobilization, social
movement

In May 2010, a political party of self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
Filipinos (LGBT), Ladlad (Out of the Closet),1 was on the ballot for the first time in the
Philippines. The Supreme Courts decision to allow the first LGBT2 political party in the
Corresponding author:
Cheryll Ruth Reyes Soriano, Department of Communication, De La Salle University, 2401 Taft Avenue,
Manila 1004, Philippines.
Email: cheryll.soriano@dlsu.edu.ph

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country (and purportedly in Asia) to run for the 2010 nationwide party-list elections,
overruling the Commission on Elections decision, marked a significant opening for the
LGBT community in the political arena and a considerable achievement in this predominantly Catholic society. The party-list system of elections provided in the Constitution
was intended to allocate space for the inclusion of societys marginalized sectors in lawmaking. Ladlad deems that a Congressional seat will give the LGBT community, estimated at 670,000 persons, a voice in the crafting and passing of the pending
Anti-Discrimination Bill that will work against the physical and symbolic violence experienced by LGBTs. Ladlad did not receive sufficient votes to acquire a seat in Congress
during the 2010 elections. The party ran for another chance at securing a Congressional
seat during the May 2013 election, but was again unsuccessful. Despite this second failure, the inclusion of LGBTs as political actors is a significant departure from typical
characterizations of LGBT people in society and an interesting case for the analysis of
the role of online media in LGBT political formations.
Over recent years, Ladlad has developed a wide set of internet-based campaign strategies, including online narratives and discursive spaces in its website, e-group, and social
networking sites. An interesting aspect of its campaign is how Ladlad mobilized members with diverse self-concepts, ways of life, and sexualities. The availability of internet
access by virtue of affordable marketing schemes and cybercafes implies that the online
LGBT community is represented not only across sexualities, or religious beliefs, but
across class. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender are categories that represent differing needs and social positions, yet they also have in common the generalized forms of
discrimination that occur along ethnic and class lines (Thoreson, 2012: 53940). Amid
these sources of diversity and commonality within this grouping, how and for what purpose do queer groups form and what constitutes a structural basis for an alliance? As
Melucci (1995: 291) asks, how do heterogeneous individuals find themselves as part of
a collective and what processes and strategies underlie the continual tensions and negotiations of collective action? How do online media facilitate, shape, or constrain such
LGBT political formation?

Dialectics of online LGBT activism

The environment for discussions of queer identity and sexuality has opened up because of
the internet (Friedman, 2007; Gross, 2003, 2007; ORiordan, 2007; Pullen 2010a, 2010b).
The interconnectivity made possible by internet technologies enables the swift exchange
of queer ideologies and networks across ways of life in distant spaces, where queer individuals get to experience something of a queer community, and obtain advice and information about a variety of queer issues (Castells, 2010; Fraser, 2010: 31). As more local
and regional materials on queer identity and struggle are available, experiences are
exchanged and networks are formed amid a diversity of cultures. The striking activity of
LGBT youth online also provides them with an opportunity for engaging intensely in
identity formation and exploration (Gross, 2007, 2003; Rak, 2005: 16682) and social
action (Castells, 2010; Pullen, 2010b: 1736). As the number of Filipino LGBTs with
online access grows, these form communities of solidarity for sharing similar experiences
and causes that increase motivation for more members to go online (Austria, 2004, 2007).

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Through the internets multi-logicality (Dahlgren, 2001: 46), which transcends the
one-to-many correspondence of traditional media to many-to-many, minority groups
may also surpass local and national boundaries that contribute to the reconfiguration of
political practices. Computer-mediated communication can work for political mobilization by: (a) lowering the cost of mobilization; (b) facilitating a network of people sharing
a common interest and needs despite geographical distance; and (c) creating new venues
to come together secretly (Castells, 2010; Dahlgren, 2001; Gross, 2003, 2007). These
potentials suit the queer community specifically, by pooling together people, resources,
and capacities that are needed in local struggles and allow limitations of dispersion to be
transcended (Friedman, 2007). The character of online spaces also serves as a space for
expression and belonging even for those still in the closet (Austria, 2007; Gross, 2003;
Nip, 2004; Pullen 2010b) or those who have come out but uncomfortable with public
expression of their sexuality.
Aside from bringing people together for horizontal networking, online spaces are also
viewed as spheres that facilitate resistance through speaking back to certain power
structures (Mitra, 2010). Cyberqueer spaces are constituted as points of resistance
against the dominant assumption of heteronormativity (Wakeford, 2000: 408). As a
group that has suffered from others image-making and issue-framing practices, LGBTs
find a platform for communicating their issues and bringing them to the attention of the
state as political issues. By becoming new actors in the political arena, LGBTs can intervene in the reconfigurations of citizenship (Wakeford, 2000: 409). Further, as the internet
becomes the symbolic mode of organization of both cultural and economic power,
cyberqueer can be used strategically by challenging the superiority of patriarchy and
heterosexuality (Castells, 2010: 26187). Possibilities for networking also create opportunities for LGBTs to mirror and counteract the networking logic of domination in the
informational society (Castells, 2010: 424). Sexual minorities can use online media to
strategically contextualize their struggle as part of a transnational LGBT rights campaign
that reverberates across national borders. Here, the discursive potential of an imagined
community (Anderson, 2006) of LGBTs may become real as LGBTs take on agency as
counterpublics (Pullen, 2010b; Vivienne and Burgess 2012; Gross, 2003, 2007; Mitra,
2010).
However, despite the internets enabling opportunities for the political mobilization of
LGBTs, it also poses several constraints. These include concerns such as further segregation and ghettoization as opposed to fostering communication (Friedman, 2007: 797);
potential loss of real physical community (Pullen, 2010a:11); dangers of queer essentialism (Fraser, 2010; Rak, 2005: 1778), and commercialization of queer sites (Campbell,
2005). For example, concern has been expressed that even the radical discourses of
cyberqueer movements can be targeted by capital (Wakeford, 2000: 410). The courting
of the LGBT community by mainstream marketers represents a repositioning in commercial panoptic formations based on the perceived desirability of these populations as
niche markets (Campbell, 2005). Moreover, tied to the very globality of online spaces
and the possible formation of transnational networks of queer activists is the entrapment
in certain hegemonic discourses that define the ideals of queerness and queer activism
(Jelaa, 2011; Puar, 2007). There is a fear that geographically located experiences and
local emancipatory acts may become lost in the cacophony of voices arising from a

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global LGBT activist community (Alexander, 2002; Friedman, 2007: 797). Further,
while online spaces allow the amplification of the queer voice, it can also expand the
reach of discrimination in these spaces, exposing the queer community to new vulnerabilities and controls. Another important question underlying the internets potential for
queer political mobilization is how a critical mass of online users leads to a critical and
reflective discussion of issues resulting in the construction of a collective identity
(Austria, 2007; Nip, 2004).

Queer formulations and political formations

In rethinking queer theorys limits in addressing and explaining LGBT movements for
social change, Kirsch (2000) argues for finding explanations for strategies where queer
individuals come together to form a collective force for social change. Queer theorys
questioning of what counts as gay or lesbian identity, or whose definition of gay
counts, led to questions about the overall viability and political usefulness of using sexual identity as the basis of political formations (Kirsch, 2000). Butlers (1990) theory of
performativity looks at gender and sexuality as a performance, or as a repetitive series of
performances, whose effect is the production of a united subject, an identity. The theory
rests on the premise that identity is neither a substantive entity nor a metaphysical inevitability, but the effect of repetitive performances of discourses and acts that paradoxically produce the subject who enacts these performances (Butler, 1990: 245). Queer in
this sense is not an identity category but a form of meta-identity that is not limited by
labels or social constructions and disassembles common beliefs about gender and sexuality (Kirsch, 2000: 33; Sedgwick, 1990). Conducting a critique of social order, queerness
was used to challenge the stability of any identity and theorized cultural forms as iterative performances (Butler, 1990, 1993).
By focusing on the individual performance as site for change, queer theory has developed along a path that questions the basic tenets of past resistance movements. Other
scholars expressed concern that queer theory moved sexual and gender politics towards
questions of discursive constructions but neglecting economic and political regimes
(Gray, 2009: 215). Others argue that queer theory, by focusing on diversity, has done little to understand the ability of this inclusiveness to form communities of resistance
(Kirsch, 2000: 121). As the individual becomes the center of analysis, there is also no
basis for explaining how certain groups that organize on the basis of sexual orientation
come together to advance social change.

Philippine LGBTs and the problem of difference

The Philippines presents an interesting case for LGBT activism. Despite the situatedness
of LGBTs in a society where Catholic values largely dictate moral norms, the Philippines
allowed the formation and candidature of an LGBT political party. The first Gay Pride
Parade in Asia was also organized in the Philippines in 1994, which inspired similar
Pride Parades in other parts of the region such as Colombo, Hongkong, Taiwan, Delhi,
and Singapore (L Garcia, 2008). There is a myth that LGBTs are accepted in Philippine
society despite still being the objects of ridicule and despite the prejudice that they

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confront daily (Austria, 2004; B. Benedito, personal communication, October 2011). The
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) official resolution in 2009 to reject Ladlads
appeal for candidature due to immorality and for being a threat to the youth reflects
the prejudice that many sectors hold towards the LGBT community (Ang Ladlad, 2011).
Further, in a report published by the Philippine LGBT Crime Watch (2012), 156 suspected anti-LGBT hate crime deaths since 1996 have been tallied. In some instances,
these victims dignities were maligned as their sex organs were mutilated or plugged
into their body openings (Umbac, 2011). Thus, while a degree of passive tolerance
towards the LGBT community exists in the Philippines, this tolerance and leniency do
not equate to equal protection by the law (Ladlad chairperson, personal communication,
October 2011).
Marginalization happens not only through explicit ridicule or physical violence but in
ways by which heteronormativity constitutes the process of self-loathing by LGBTs. As
queers grow up in societies where homosexuality is loathed and mocked, a homosexual
growing up in this society begins to loathe himself or herself and adopts a negative view
of being queer (Hodges and Hutter, 1974). Heteronormativity also results in discourses
and policies that marginalize and erase the concerns of those who do not fit into the heterosexual norms (Olson, 2009: 4). Tolerance is high for those who conform to stereotypes and regulate their own sexualities, and this could mean never coming out of the
closet and shying away from public movements against discrimination.
Rethinking queer theorys relevance for understanding Philippine gay culture,
J.N.C. Garcia (2000: 2678) argued that while employing central insights of Butlerian
performativity is productive, it is important to be reminded of how localized and
context-bound gender and sexuality always are. Sexual and gender subjectivity in
the Philippines falls between religious and secular registers, a Filipino psychospirituality: a hybrid site of sorts, that if anything indicates to us just how important
religiosity, despite the trappings of modernity, continues to be for most Filipinos
(JNC Garcia, 2000: 270). Understanding of the self is still very much embedded in
the teachings of folk Catholic symbology. It is for this reason that the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, or transgender is conflicted on the exercise of sexuality, particularly
because the church, which he or she sees as moral authority, only accepts union
between a man and a real woman under the norms of procreation (Dumdum, 2010).
This can also explain why the bakla (male homosexual), for example, seeks to
become a woman, in contrast to the concept of a drag for British radical fems, which
implies giving up the power of a male role while passing off as a women is never
the object of their forays into cross-dressing (Dumdum, 2010; JNC Garcia, 2008:
265). Moreover, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines offers a notion
of homosexuality which can be detached from homosexual acts, and contends that
although homosexuality is not condemned, engaging in homosexual acts is immoral
and sinful (Sampan, 2013). Such an interpretation of homosexuality, although criticized by LGBT activists, is imbibed by some members of the community. The enormous formal and informal influence of the Catholic Church in Philippine politics and
society, as well as the significant percentage of practising Catholics among the
LGBT community, implies that queer political formations and online articulations
need to traverse this sensitive terrain (Thoreson, 2012: 5412).

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Ladlad online: out of the closet and into politics

The COMELEC denied Ladlads registration as a sectoral political party in 2006 for lack
of substantial membership base, and again in 2009, for lack of moral grounds (Ang
Ladlad, 2011). The Commissions decision was overturned by the Supreme Court, paving way for Ladlad to run for party-list elections in the May 2010 elections, but with less
than a month left to campaign. Ladlad, organized in 2003, claims to have 16,100 affiliates and members around the country. The organizations funds come primarily from
collected annual fees of P100 (US$2.4) per working member (P50 or US$1.2 for students), donations, and fund-raising events (Ladlad leaders, personal interview, May 2010
and October 2011).
Ladlad set up its website, www.angLadlad.org, in 2007, after the COMELEC turned
down its first bid for elections. The website was created to serve as a channel for broadcasting its motion for reconsideration and for attracting new members and supporters. A
Ladlad leader explained that prior to the internet, the LGBT community saw itself only
through the lens of mainstream media and the dominant culture, as there had been limited opportunities for LGBTs to represent themselves and articulate their causes publicly.
According to a Ladlad member, as many members of our community are known as
comedians or parloristas (salon assistants), medias representation of our community is
also limited within these caricaturizations. Online spaces facilitate self-representation
of their causes without the usual control or mediation of others.
Ladlad was selected purposively as case study (Yin, 2008: 91) because it is suitable
for the analysis of how minorities use online spaces to mobilize as a collective political
force. A case study design was used as it allows the investigation of a phenomenon from
multiple dimensions. In-depth interviews with current and former leaders and members
as well as activists and historians closely related to the movement were conducted to
explore the groups purposes and meaning-making of online political mobilization, situated within the historical roots of the struggle. Ethnographic analyses of the website,
Facebook site, and Twitter3 were conducted from March 2010 to June 2011 to explore
actual uses of online spaces for political mobilization, engagement of symbolic forms,
and dynamics of interactions. The blog,4 which replaced the website in early 2012, is not
covered in this review. Archived documents relating to Ladlads political candidature
and the LGBT struggle were utilized. This use of multiple resources and sites of media
engagement and meaning-making (Baym and Markham, 2009) was critical in understanding the online strategies engaged by Ladlad. Following guidance from Ryan and
Bernard (2003), themes were generated from recurring topics that appeared in the interviews and in the online spaces.
Ladlads website was seen as the organizations image in the virtual front, a lens
through which the group expected itself to be understood and recognized. It is for this
reason that posts in the website were more carefully screened and crafted. The Yahoo!
e-group page, on the other hand (with 4307 members as of August 2011), functions as a
private discussion board and requires registration, but allows non-LGBTs to join. Prior
to Facebook and Twitter, the e-Group served multiple purposes and was the central space
for communication across the community from public announcements and sharing of
LGBT issues or petitions, to private matters such as internal conflicts or rules of

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membership. As more of its members have subscribed to social networking sites, matters
relevant to the group that do not need to be kept internally, such as announcements, news,
and opinion pieces are posted on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook drives more members
to participate, especially the younger ones, because there is a feeling of belonging, and
spontaneous solidarity in terms of LGBT issues and concerns (Ladlad member, personal communication, May 2010). Ease of maintenance and participation also enabled
the involvement of more members in content development and continued activity. The
automatic alert and tagging features facilitate the drawing of members attention and in
disseminating information to a large audience that includes the non-LGBTs. Ladlads
Facebook newsfeed shows an amalgam of posts shared by its members, ranging from
political and intellectual talk to personal greetings, making Facebook more current and
active in terms of content than its website. Ladlads Facebook and Twitter accounts are
updated daily, with activity of an average of about 10 messages posted in a day, while the
website is updated at least every two weeks.

Dynamics of construction and negotiation of an LGBT

movement online
Carving out a space for belonging
Giddens (1990) argued that modernity involves a profound reorganization of time and
space in social and cultural life, which is spelt out in his discussion on timespace distanciation and embeddingdisembedding that take place in modernity. Social relations
of pre-modern societies are largely confined to face-to-face interaction (Giddens, 1990:
18). However, the internet as a form of this modernity undermines this social interaction
by fostering relations between absent others, locationally distant from any given situation of face-to-face interaction. Internet technology further disembeds social relations
from local contexts of face-to-face interaction and rearranges them across time and space
(Castells, 2010). Reflexivity, Giddens argues, is bound by the issue of trust and belonging with respect to disembedded institutions, as well as considerations of security and
risk of involvement. In the context of Ladlad, LGBTs from distant locations form a group
of solidarity with others living out similar circumstances.
Social networking sites have actually paved an era of gayness. Subconsciously, it progresses
into the real world. By association and mingling with older LGBTs, we get this drive, sort of a
confidence; its a real world outside the web. Then we start to use gay lingo. (Member, gay,
personal communication, April 2010)

The above quote reflects the symbolic confidence gained by belonging to a community that also drives the performance of ones sexuality, characterized by the use of gay
lingo or gayspeak. Social networking sites capability to articulate a list of other users
with whom one maintains a connection (boyd and Ellison 2007) facilitates an open association with a community that boosts courage to express ones sexuality. Ladlads
Facebook page has members from small LGBT groupings across the Philippine islands.
Some members express a feeling of protection by being part of the collective, Dont hurt

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us, we will report you to Ladlad! (Ladlad party-list Facebook, online posting, 22 January
2011). As a bigger group comprising of four major groupings of sexual minorities, the
members feel stronger than if they faced discrimination as individuals. Seeking advice
online is one of the common themes arising from the e-group page of Ladlad. Members
often ask for advice in terms of coming out or would share personal conflicts in coming
to terms with their identity. As argued by Gross (2007: ix), the potential for friendship
and group formation provided by the Internet is particularly valuable for members of
self-identified minorities who are scattered and often besieged in their home
surroundings.
Ladlad organizers post messages offering protection and security to its members as
part of the organization. For example, Ladlad encourages its members to share experiences of discrimination and connects them to free legal assistance, U need lawyers?
Ladlad party-list will offer free legal assistance to Pinoy LGBTs who are victims of
injustice and discrimination (posted on Twitter and Facebook, 7 January 2011). This
form of service bridges LGBT communities across class and occupation, by mobilizing
professional LGBTs to help out the disadvantaged members of the community. The process of engagement in such online formations, therefore, can be argued to be useful in the
creation of a community of LGBT activists. According to a Ladlad member: some of us
just wanted to have an organization, you know, to belong. But in the process, we also
learn about other members struggles. Because we can relate, it is only natural that we
help if we can. Other members explained that membership in the organizations online
spaces allowed them to realize the commonality of discrimination that different members
of the community experience and in turn intensified their support for the organizations
cause.
Amid this internal mobilization is the question of representation across diverse groupings that Ladlad represents. In Ladlads Facebook page, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and
transgenders participate, but there are occasional quips, Gays again? How about us lesbians? Ladlad noted that there is relatively more active online participation among gays
and transgenders, and considers it a challenge to present a balanced representation in its
membership.

LGBT cocoons
In emphasizing why LGBT research is vital, Slagle (2009), argued that in most cultures,
heterosexuality is a privileged site of social and political organization, while other types
of relationships are considered less than heterosexual relationships or are rendered invisible. The internet reverses this norm by giving visibility to alternative forms of organization, allowing groups to come together and form a community. Ladlad members explained
that the internets facility to control the community that queers surround themselves with
makes it easier to segregate and shield them from discrimination while finding a community of belonging:
The LGBT culture is very online cause thats where discrimination is very low. Thats where
you can really be yourself. The only one controlling your actions would be you. You are not
exposed to other people, what people have to say about you. Unlike if you want to be gay in

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public you are exposed to scrutiny and ostracism of people, criticism of other people. We can
easily shut off people who write against us. Chances are the community is very screened
because people who are familiar with our social network, or who would actively search us are
also the LGBT. So I believe theres very little port of entry for threats to the community
online. (Member, gay, personal communication, April 2010).

It has been argued that individuals are more likely to align themselves with networks
and views that suit their predispositions and prejudices in the online space (Sunstein,
2006). Such selective exposure to information that reinforces the group ideology leads to
the formation of information cocoons that allow peoples beliefs to be reinforced and
within this environment, feel validated (2006: 29) within a closed, self-referential environment. While information cocoons have been seen as leading to narrow thinking and
extreme speech in online discussion forums and blogs (Sunstein, 2006), the possibility of
forming cocoons in the online space presents advantages for the LGBT members who
come together to provide support and, in turn, shield themselves from discriminatory
voices. The organization also makes an effort to delete derogatory comments in their
Facebook pages because these taint the credibility of the organization as a political
party. According to a leader, We dont want to allow ourselves to be maligned in our
own site. Because this is a pro-LGBT site. That is the beauty of Facebook, you can
remove what you dont like easily so it can be the page for promoting yourself and your
cause.
Members also call the groups attention to homophobic sites or groups on the internet,
and these members respond by attacking such spaces. A significant number of Facebook
members and supporters online, now in the thousands, make this possible. Examples are
Facebook groups inspired by the theme, Mabuti pa ang magnakaw kesa mamakla (It is
better to be a thief than to be in a relationship with a homosexual). Ladlad members
managed to report and take down some of the first few groups formed under the banner,
although two groups still remain as of September 2011. A gaming group page, Pinoy
Patay Bading (Filipinos Kill Gays), was also reported to Ladlads Facebook site, after
which the page was filled with posts from Ladlad members against discrimination and
which outnumbered the homophobic posts.

Online political mobilization and campaigning

When Ladlads candidature was denied by the COMELEC in 2009 on the basis of
immorality, the LGBT community actively campaigned against the decision both
offline and online. In their blogs and social networking sites, LGBTs and their nonLGBT supporters created online petitions (i.e. I am Not Immoral campaign),5 condemning the COMELECs decision. As the queer community has limited control over
mainstream media and meager funds to mount elaborate campaigns, the internet also
helps to level the playing field with other well-funded political parties as they construct
a space for organizing their campaigns and communicating what they advocate online.
Given social networking sites capacity to be shared and tagged, Ladlads campaigns also
reach non-LGBTs, who constitute a majority of the voting population. This reaching out
to non-LGBT friends and supporters, Ladlad argues, is helpful because it allows them to

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provide alternate representations of the LGBT community and struggle beyond mainstream media depictions and contributes to their broader goals of soliciting greater
understanding of their claims.
However, as many parts of the archipelago still have no reliable internet connection,
face-to-face campaign rallies are critical to LGBTs in other parts of the country. The
online spaces serve to complement their provincial campaigns, which require huge funds
to mount. Since Ladlad intensified its online and offline campaigns, some 52,000 members have already signed up as members and volunteers, a significant increase from its
2010 figure (Ladlad chairperson, personal communication, October 2011). During the
provincial campaigns in 2010, the Facebook page served as a central portal for announcements, complaints, and organizing of the groups provincial campaign that involved
LGBT members posting updates and concerns from various parts of the archipelago.
From as early as 2011, Ladlad has been actively using its Facebook and Twitter pages
to organize regional and provincial campaign assemblies for the 2013 elections. The
2013 election was crucial for Ladlad because a second loss may cast further doubt on its
claim of a broad membership base and result in disqualification as a political party for
subsequent elections. Photos of provincial campaigns were posted in their SNS to affirm
Ladlads reach as a national organization, and which counter previous doubts that Ladlad
does not have national membership. Fund-raising events are also shared in these sites.
According to a member, the online space also serves as a venue for those who still refuse
to participate in campaigns where public association is required. Online mobilization
allowed members to join and offer support while being shielded from the discriminatory
eyes of peers and families.

Constructing identity in diversity

My review of Ladlads online spaces reflects competing opinion among the members on
how queers must act in society and what constitutes a queer identity. In the Facebook
page, some participants argue concerning a public forum on Homosexuality is not a
sin:
i object.im gay.but sometimes, isnt it that its.nicer if lets leave spiritual
A: 
matters to the rightful oneshomosexuality is not a sin..but havin sex with
same gender is the sin
homosexuality is not a sin but having sex with the same gender is? thats so
B: 
patently ridiculous its funny. i thought i only hear that statement from clueless
& ignorant catholic priests. a lot of protestant denominations like the MCC,
Episcopalian, and other Anglican churches treat homosexuality as harmless and
equal as heterosexuality. :)
dont judge my opinion my friend ..as much as i want to oppose that viewsi
A: 
think i would prefer to believe that truly its a sin.and im really sad about iti
read it on the bible..and those protestants, Mcc etci hate to say..but i guess
they are opposing GODs wordnow i admit im a sinnernot as a gay..with
by having sex with same gender let me clarifyGod destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah, not because of homosexualsbut because they chose to have sex

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with same genderthat is clearBeing GAY is not a sin some gays start
from childhoodand they are not sinners..coz they dont have the sexual urge
with the same sex but once sex comes inthere the sin startsthat is why I
am sad because as much as I want to obey GodI cant give up my baby
huhuhu :)
B: 
LOL. you can believe whatever you want to believe but please remember not to
impose your belief unto others. i hope your views only represent a very tiny minority in the LGBT community. for homosexuality was NEVER a sin, period. :)
A: 
im not imposingim just sharing my viewminority or notim still part of a
gay movement in our areathat is why we chose to keep distance from the
church..we dont want to drag God in our desire to be happy

(Series of exchanges in Ladlads Facebook page, some words and phrases translated from Filipino, 5 June 2010)
It will be noticed that As opinion is heavily influenced by the Catholic Churchs
teachings about homosexuality. As pointed out by Hodges and Hutter (1974: n.p.), the
ultimate success of all forms of oppression is a persons own self-oppression. For example: self-oppression is achieved when the gay person has adopted an internalized straight
peoples definition of what is good and bad. Such repressions create a split in a queers
identity, alienating him or her from his or her passions, and encouraging an abandonment
of personal feelings or desires and internal feelings of sin, sickness and criminality
(Austria, 2004: 49). This implies that self-oppression complicates the overlapping layers
of struggle faced by Filipino queers (Austria, 2004, 2007), particularly in terms of internal conflict between willingness to express ones sexual preferences and urges and the
Catholic Churchs teachings as moral authority.
Although the two members in the above quote expressed conflicting views, the disagreements were expressed politely, with smileys added at the end of their posts, an
attempt to attach respect in the midst of disagreement. This could be explained by the
fact that most members posting in the Ladlad Facebook page and e-group do not use
pseudonymous accounts and it is possible that these members might see each other during national assemblies. Some members can be identified as known LGBT activists,
professionals, or educators. In a few cases when they use pseudonyms, the members
explained that they still know their real identities. As Ladlads leader argued, We need
names and real members, not trolls. We rely on membership, warm bodies. So yes the
offline is very much connected to the online world of the org (former leader of Ladlad,
personal communication, May 2010).
There are other points of contention within the community. For example, the Gay
Pride march, where members parade on the streets in colorful costumes to communicate
their fight against discrimination, is viewed by some members to be reinforcing traditional media prejudices that caricature the LGBT image. The group is also divided over
the contentious issue of same-sex marriage and views have been exchanged in its e-group
site. The membership also expressed competing views on Ladlads support for particular
candidates during the 2010 elections. Such expressions in the online spaces show that a
unified conception of LGBT identity is reductive. The online spaces represent the divergent views of what constitutes queer identity and discrimination, and this implies the

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challenge for the organization to accommodate these differences while finding a common ground.

Common ground for mobilization

Ladlad calls on its members to report personal experiences of discrimination, Have you
experienced discrimination because you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender? Report
to Ladlad! (Facebook and Twitter posting, 5 January 2011). In response, varied experiences of discrimination are shared. Together with members who seem to be financially
constrained, LGBT members from the middle and upper income classes also express
experiences of discrimination in their respective contexts. Some members sought help in
finding jobs, or report prison abuse. Other members, some of them celebrities, writers or
professionals, also shared experiences of having been refused entry to bars, restaurants,
or spas, while others report discriminatory practices in company promotions exercises.
Discourse on marginalization in terms of sexuality and gender work as both a leveling
and a mobilizing factor that brings together members from various levels of prestige,
profession, or income.
Harassment or physical violence conducted by the police and military were also
exposed. Local ordinances that discriminate against queers (e.g. imposition of separate
toilets for LGBTs) are brought to the attention of group members. At times, intellectual
discussions on queer theory are participated in by a cluster of students or academically
inclined members, as they historicize the roots of LGBT discrimination in Philippine
society. A common theme running across the online spaces is not only the sharing of the
experience but the goal of advancing the community with regard to multiple facets of
discrimination. Calls to report and share personal experiences of discrimination allow
the organization to act as an entity working to protect and defend the community. Aside
from political institutions, the Catholic Church is a common subject, as members respond
to the Churchs statements of incrimination of the non-heteronormative way of life.
Contrasting with criticisms of the Catholic Church for its disapproval of the LGBT lifestyle are clusters of posts around the theme God does not discriminate or God loves
bakla [gay] (various Facebook postings, May 2010 2011).
The online space facilitates reporting of discrimination cases and creates room for
some of its privileged members to be of help to members in need of assistance. Ladlads
chairperson shared that their online spaces receive about four to five complaints on discrimination cases sent by its members every day, which they compile in order to
strengthen their clamor for the passing of the Anti-Discrimination Bill. The issue of discrimination is important because it justifies Ladlads claim for recognition as a political
party aspiring to a seat in Congress.
But the use of online spaces for political mobilization, according to its leaders, also
poses challenges. For example, the website used to carry a membership form, which had
been the groups strategy to increase membership. However, they received reports that
the form had been improperly used in the provinces to solicit membership fees. Their old
blog was also targeted by advertisements for liquor and other unwholesome products,
which they had to distance themselves from because of their goal of being taken seriously as a political party.

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Moreover, I observed that particular kinds of speech and performativity are placed in
the public space while certain articulations are regulated for fear of the consequences.
For example, members used to post personals (i.e. looking for partners) on the blog, but
when they became accredited as a political party, there was an effort to negotiate selfpresentation in their online spaces and moderate the posts and comments of their members. Ladlad also maintains explicit rules against the posting of pornography or selling of
products in its online spaces (Ladlad former leader, personal interview, May 2010).
Conversations in Facebook rarely touched on members private lives or their love relationships. The restraint in showing internal disagreement online is also managed by the
moderators and, to a certain extent, self-regulated by the members.
A prevailing assumption of a liberal, heteronormative public sphere necessitates the
delineation between the private and the public whereby sex acts should remain private.
McCann argues that any LGBT rhetoric that privileges the rational over the sensual, the
decorous over the transgressive, the family-friendly over the backroom cocksuckers
places limits on how queer citizens express their sexual liberation (2011: 260) and essentially supports heteronormativity. Setting up Ladlads strategy amid such theorization of
what counts as a queer counterpublic would point to a view that Ladlad silences queer
subjectivity through its willingness to be subsumed under heterosexual norms. However,
a closer analysis of Ladlads online strategies would manifest a more complex arena of
negotiating online engagement that operates within particular cultural orientations and
political objectives. Ladlad stands as a national organization existing within a divergence
of ideologies carried by its members, including those whose self-concepts are heavily
influenced by the teachings of the Catholic Church. Moreover, the LGBT community
exists within the confines of a Catholic society, which still widely influences social
mores and norms. The reality of religious influence over Philippine culture shows that
setting up rules that delineate public, political talk from private talk is necessary in order
to advance an agenda in Philippine society, because extremely radical approaches can be
immediately nullified or censored. As an LGBT leader put it in the interviews:
We need to strategize our battle, otherwise we will be completely shut off. This is also why
same-sex marriage is not formally in our plan of action. We have our individual opinions about
it, but if we push for it as a national organization, we will have a lot of enemies both inside and
out and people will stop listening to our call against discrimination. (Ladlad leader, personal
communication, May 2010)

Here we see how the organizations assessment of the cultural and political climate
shapes its online political mobilization strategy. Members also mentioned Ladlads interest in constructing and debating opinion on a wide range of national political issues such
as transport hikes, corruption, or poor governance, and particularly those that involve
marginalization of all sorts. As a political party which works under the veil of equal
rights, not special rights, the organization is careful that while it addresses LGBT issues
primarily, it also has a firm stand and awareness of other national and political issues. A
leader explained that framing LGBT issues within a broader concern for social justice is
important because, while the community experiences marginalization as sexual minorities, they are also directly affected by the vulnerabilities caused by social injustices such

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as unemployment or inflation. By bringing such political and governance issues onto the
group page, LGBT members who might otherwise shy away from political discussions
elsewhere are encouraged to participate.

Discussion and conclusion

It has been argued that while much is being said about how movements should be interpreted, they are treated as a black box: how movements organize their collective political
will, and how they manage continuity and unity, are factors that make them into collective actors (Mayer and Roth, 1995: 315). By looking at Ladlads meaning-making and
use of online spaces for political mobilization, we get a privileged view of this black box.
The case study brings to the surface internal political mobilization in practice as the
group constructs its collective identity and strengthens its visibility through the internet.
This is critical in a society where conservative religious norms can clash with themes
such as self-expression and exercising ones sexual and gender choices. The case of
Ladlads online political mobilization shows that connectivity is an important component of the complex process of building a collectivity. Ladlad does not represent a collective of members with homogeneous values and interests and a consensus of opinion.
However, the connective process facilitated by their online initiatives mobilizes LGBT
members of diverse backgrounds and ideologies to be in solidarity with others of similar
experiences.
Ladlad failed to secure the necessary number of votes during the 2010 and 2013 elections, which it had expected to come from its dispersed members and supporters across
the country. This implies not only the insufficiency of an online campaign to fully mobilize itself as a political force, but also the overall challenge of inserting an LGBT agenda
in Philippine politics. Despite this failure, the process of connectivity facilitated the
activism of its members, as they learned about the struggles of their community,
exchanges support and assistance, and found greater affirmation for the organizations
cause.
A backstage view of Ladlads online spaces shows how narratives of discrimination
are used to mobilize the sentiments of its membership and move them into solidarity
and action. In terms of framing strategies, these focus on the detection of problems
(diagnostic framing), presenting solutions (prognostic framing), and giving members
and potential recruits a reason for joining collective action (motivational framing)
(Snow and Benford, 1988). These frames work to break the accepted frames that operate within the status quo that some members of the community have unknowingly
accepted (i.e. that LGBTs are already accepted in Philippine society; that it is a sin to
have same-sex relations; or that sexuality cannot be a basis for social or political formations). Through the sharing of personal experiences of discrimination but also offers
of support LGBTs from diverse classes and social strata, holding a variety of values
and self-concepts, find common ground. This sharing of common experience serves as
an affirmation of belonging and works as the foundation for a social movement among
members disembedded physically, but embedded socially and politically. The capacity of online spaces to bring together a diverse and geographically dispersed LGBT
community with shared experiences of discrimination, while at the same time allowing

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it to form cocoons that can shield members from discriminatory voices, help to create
arenas for solidarity and belonging. In these platforms, LGBTs who used to feel
excluded by earlier modes of political participation now felt that they can participate in
politics in their own terms.
Community, as we saw in the case study, is a space of belonging and safety, and yet
the community is not free from unequal representation, divergent views, varying levels
of commitment, or misunderstanding from within. The recognition and accommodation
of the differences within the community and collective identification with the projected
goals work for the group in the process of social movement formation. This is parallel to
the logic of many resistance movements in the past, especially of subordinated communities, where members of differing class, status, race or sexual orientation hold a common understanding of the goals of liberation, even as they exercise activism separately
(Kirsch, 2000: 101). As we glean from the case of Ladlad, LGBTs of diverse backgrounds and levels of power in society share a common experience that works symbolically to solidify their fight against discrimination. The case of Ladlads online political
mobilization shows that the private and sexual are heavily embedded in the political
articulations and shared experiences of discrimination that form the basis for their individual and collective political resistance. These experiences help formulate an explanation for collective identity-building and emphasize the relevance of sexual identity as the
basis of political formations.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or
not-for-profit sectors.

Notes
1. The translation of Ladlad is to unfurl a cape used to cover ones body as a shield. It means
to come out of the closet, to assert ones human rights as equal to that of other Filipinos
(Ladlad website).
2. I use the term LGBT to describe Ladlad and LGBT advocacy groups in the Philippines in
general because this is the term they use and identify with. I use the term queer to refer to all
those who diverge from a predominant sex and gender system.
3. See, respectively: www.Ladlad.org; https://www.facebook.com/angLadlad and http://twitter.
com/#!/angLadlad
4. See: http://Ladladpartylist.blogspot.sg/
5. See: https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-AM-NOT-IMMORAL/458630725034

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