BLNC Facets: Jefaye Elli

BLNC Facets : Pride in Everyday

Jefaye Elli

RIZAL

What is everyday life like as a queer person on your side of the country?

JE: Being a queer person in the Philippines may seem loud and colorful, but oftentimes it feels like a battlecry. Although it is wonderful to see an enormous number of youth in this generation having gender sensitivity awareness, we are still asserting our rights, legal protections, fighting against discrimination, and microaggression. It is lovely to see cisgendered people waving at us, smiling, and laughing with us during pride events, drag shows, or every party we are in but on a daily basis, being a queer person still makes me whisper a soft, tiny, shining dream as I blow my candles every year: I want us to be celebrated and not just tolerated.

What would you like Filipinos to know about the LGBTQIA+ community where you are?

JE: Conservatives consider us as someone who needed "cure" for a disease we don't even have. By simple dressing up, expressing yourself as a queer person is something that they still tend to modify. When in fact, our history tells us that even our wonderful ancestors in the precolonial era, the Babaylans, spiritually, culturally, and symbolically represented the transgender and nonbinary identities of people who held high status in our society.

They did not care less about the clothes they wore, they did not give a damn about labels, as they broke down gender roles and stereotypes. If there's one thing to be "cured" in this society, it's ignorance.

(https://www.instagram.com/_jefayerytale/)

Photographer: Edgar Siervo (Siervo and Photography)