LGBT culture in the Philippines

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Philippines have a distinctive, influential culture but limited legal rights. Gays and lesbians are generally tolerated, if not accepted, within Filipino society, however widespread discrimination remains. The most visible members of the Filipino LGBT culture, known as the Bakla, are a distinct group in the Philippines.

According to the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey, 11% of sexually-active Filipinos between the ages of 15 and 24 have had sex with someone of the same sex.

Filipino poet and critic Lilia Quindoza Santiago speculates that Filipino culture may have a more flexible concept of gender because kasarian, the Tagalog word for gender, is defined in less binary terms than the English word gender.Kasarian means "kind, species, or genus".

A bakla and bading is a man who displays feminine mannerisms, dresses as a woman or identifies as a woman. While the term itself is not the equivalent of the English term gay,bakla are the most culturally visible subset of gay men in the Philippines. They are often considered a third gender, embodying femaleness (pagkababae) in a male body. The term bakla is sometimes used in a derogatory sense, although bakla people have largely embraced it.

Bakla individuals are socially and economically integrated into Filipino society and are considered an important part of society. A common stereotype of a bakla is a parlorista, a cross-dresser who works in a salon.Miss Gay Philippines is a beauty pageant for bakla individuals.

In the Philippines, the term gay is used in reference to any LGBT person. For Filipino gays, the Tagalog phrase paglaladlad ng kapa ("unfurling the cape"), or more commonly just paglaladlad ("unfurling" or "unveiling"), refers to the coming-out process. Tibo, T-Bird, and tomboy are derogatory terms for butch lesbians, just as bakla is for effeminate gay men. Some lesbians, both butch and femme, use the terms magic or shunggril to refer to themselves. "Paminta" is used to describe masculine gay men. Neutral slang terms for gay men include billy boy, badette and bading.

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