Superiority is never Equality

Gretchen Diez was all over the news. The transgender woman who claimed to be discriminated by a
janitress by barring her from using the female restroom at Farmer’s Market in Cubao. Diez publicized
the incident by taking it to FB Live which triggered the anger of the janitress. The incident was heard by
the Senate. Diez took his chance to call for the passing of SOGIE Bill.

But the other side of the row shows otherwise. As per Chayra Ganal, the janitress, there are women who
approached her and complained about the presence of Diez inside the restroom. She said, she offered
the male restroom to Diez but Diez took his phone and recorded the incident through FB Live. Ganal got
mad and took Diez to the security after he refused to delete the video. Senator Sotto obtained the
security footage of the incident and as per him it seemed to match the statement of Ganal.

Who is telling the truth? Who is seemed to be gaining the sympathy of the people? Who discriminated
who? And who harassed who?

I am a Christian. I am a strong believer of Christianity and I uphold the beliefs and teachings taught by
our church. That God only created an Adam and an Eve.

I have nothing against anyone in the third sex. I respect them. Some of them are my friends. Some of
them are my relatives. And in return, they also respect me. As long as no one is harming anyone, we live
peacefully. With equal rights.

Furthermore, some members of the growing community of LGBT established names in the different
industries. There are lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers, nurses, teachers and many more to the
extent that some of them were elected in government offices. Some of them are well-known in our
society and even internationally. Some of them already achieved highest of their dreams with their
perseverance, intelligence, skills and a lot more. They have my admiration. Many of us have. But more
than that, this only proves that we are in a gay-friendly country. That they also have equal rights to life
and to progress. Another proof is that the schools and universities conduct gender-sensitivity
conferences amongst their students. Meaning, everyone is respected.

But what Diez did, for me, is already out of hand. He demands to be respected but he himself did not
respect the rights of the women including the janitress who is only doing her job. He might not still
accept the fact that no matter how much he insists that he now belongs to the female gender with his
long hair, make up and dress and that he deserves to be using the female comfort rooms, there will
always be classified boundaries between a naturally born and the queer community. This is not
discrimination. This is equal rights. How?

This is the same reason as to why female and male toilets are separated. This is not only to make
distinctions between the genders but for the safety of both. And this will also be the reason why it is
proposed to have a separate public toilet for the LGBT community – not to discriminate but to not risk
their safety.
The presence of Diez in the female toilet might prompted fear to the women who approached the
janitress. Fear not because Diez belongs to the LGBT community, but fear to the sexual predators who
can dress like a woman and easily prey on their possible victims. They don’t know Diez. Neither Diez
knows them. Therefore, it is understandable to have this fear. Even though they argue that incident like
this has a low probability, still it has a probability. And we don’t want it to happen. Especially to women
who are the most vulnerable of sexual assaults.

And here is Diez, calling for equality- sensationalizing the incident by posting it to social media and to his
interviews. Making it look like he was the only one oppressed. What he did isn’t a call for equality but
for superiority. Insisting his so-called rights by what? Setting aside the rights of these natural born
women? We have equal rights. He should also have respected these. He should have let the
management, the police officers and the people responsible to take action about the incident to do their
work and resolve the case instead of doing what he did.

Anyways, there is still a broad discussion about gender sensitivity and equality. I will keep track of this
issue but I will strongly take my stand against Diez statements and advocacies. Not because I’m biased
but because I believe that superiority is never equality.