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I was an eight-year old kid
in the mid-1990s.

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I grew up in the southern Philippines.

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At that age, you are
young enough to be oblivious

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about what society expects
from each of us,

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but old enough to be aware
of what's going on around you.

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We lived in a one-bedroom house,

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all five of us.

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Our house was amongst clusters of houses

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made mostly of wood
and corrugated metal sheets.

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These houses were built
very close to each other,

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along unpaved roads.

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There was little to no
expectation of privacy.

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Whenever an argument broke out next door,

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you heard it all.

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Or, if there was a little
something something going on

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(Laughter)

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you would probably hear that too.

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Like any other kid, I learned
what a family looked like.

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It was a man, a woman,
plus a child or children.

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But I also learned
it wasn't always that way.

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There were other combinations
that worked just as well.

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There was this family of three
who lived down the street.

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The lady of the house was called Lenny.

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Lenny had long black hair,
often in a ponytail,

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and manicured nails.

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She always went out
with a little makeup on

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and her signature red lipstick.

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Lenny's other half,
I don't remember much about him

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except that he had a thing
for wide sleeveless shirts

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and gold chains around his neck.

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Their daughter was
a couple years younger than me.

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Now, everybody in the village knew Lenny.

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She owned and ran what was
the most popular beauty salon

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in our side of town.

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Every time their family
would walk down the roads,

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they would always be greeted with smiles

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and occasionally stopped
for a little chit-chat.

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Now, the interesting thing about Lenny

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is that she also happened to be
a transgender woman.

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She exemplified

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one of the Philippines' longstanding
stories about gender diversity.

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Lenny was proof that oftentimes
we think of something as strange

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only because we're not familiar with it,

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or we haven't taken enough time
to try and understand.

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In most cultures around the world,

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gender is this man-woman dichotomy.

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It's this immovable, nonnegotiable,
distinct classes of individuals.

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We assign characteristics and expectations
the moment a person's biological sex

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is determined.

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But not all cultures are like that.

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Not all cultures are as rigid.

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Many cultures don't look
at genitalia primarily

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as basis for gender construction,

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and some communities in North America,
Africa, the Indian Subcontinent,

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and the Pacific islands,
including the Philippines,

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have a long history
of cultural permissiveness

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and accommodation of gender variances.

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As you may know,

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the people of the Philippines were under
Spanish rule for over 300 years.

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That's from 1565 to 1898.

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This explains why everyday
Filipino conversations

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are peppered with Spanish words,

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and why so many of our last names,
including mine, sound very Spanish.

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This also explains the firmly entrenched
influence of Catholicism.

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But precolonial Philippine societies,
they were mostly animists.

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They believed all things
had a distinct spiritual essence:

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plants, animals, rocks, rivers, places.

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Power resided in the spirit.

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Whoever was able to harness
that spiritual power was highly revered.

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Now, scholars who have studied
the Spanish colonial archives

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also tell us that these early societies
were largely egalitarian.

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Men did not necessarily
have an advantage over women.

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Wives were treated
as companions, not slaves.

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And family contracts were not done
without their presence and approval.

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In some ways, women had the upper hand.

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A woman could divorce her husband
and own property under her own name,

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which she kept even after marriage.

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She had the prerogative
to have a baby or not,

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and then decide the baby's name.

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But the real key to the power
of the precolonial Filipino woman

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was in her role as babaylan,

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a collective term for shamans
of various ethnic groups.

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They were the community healers,

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specialists in herbal and divine lore.

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They delivered babies

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and communicated with the spirit world.

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They performed exorcisms

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and occasionally, and in defense
of their community,

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they kicked some ass.

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(Laughter)

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And while the babaylan was a female role,

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there were also in fact
male practitioners in the spiritual realm.

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Reports from early Spanish chroniclers
contain several references

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to male shamans who did not conform
to normative Western masculine standards.

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They cross-dressed

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and appeared effeminate

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or sexually ambiguous.

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A Jesuit missionary named Francisco Alsina

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said that one man
he believed to be a shaman

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was so effeminate

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that in every way he was
more a woman than a man.

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All the things the women did,

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he performed,

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such as weaving blankets,

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sewing clothes and making pots.

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He danced also like they did,

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never like a man,

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whose stance is different.

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In all, he appeared
more a woman than a man.

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Well, any other juicy details
in the colonial archives?

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Thought you'd never ask.

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(Laughter)

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As you may have deduced by now,

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the manner in which these
precolonial societies conducted themselves

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didn't go over so well.

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All the free-loving,
gender-variant-permitting,

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gender equality wokeness

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clashed viciously with the European
sensibilities at the time,

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so much so that the Spanish missionaries
spent the next 300 years

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trying to enforce their two-sex,
two-gender model.

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Many Spanish friars also thought
that the cross-dressing babalyan

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were either celibates like themselves

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or had deficient or malformed genitals,

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but this was pure speculation.

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Documents compiled between 1679 and 1685
called the Bolinao Manuscript,

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mentions male shamans marrying women.

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The Boxer Codex, circa 1590,

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provide clues on the nature
of the male babaylan sexuality.

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It says, ordinarily they dress as women,

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act like prudes,

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and are so effeminate

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that one who does know them
would believe they are women.

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Almost all are impotent
for the reproductive act,

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and thus they marry other males
and sleep with them as men and wife

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and have carnal knowledge,

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carnal knowledge of course meaning sex.

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Now, there's an ongoing debate
in contemporary society

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about what constitutes gender
and how it should be defined.

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My country is no exception.

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Some countries like Australia,
New Zealand, Pakistan, Nepal, and Canada

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have begun introducing nonbinary options
in their legal documents

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such as their passports
and their permanent resident cards.

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In all these discussions about gender,

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I think it's important to keep in mind

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that the prevailing notions
of man and woman as static genders

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anchored strictly on biological sex
are social constructs.

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In my people's case,
this social construct is an imposition.

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It was hammered into their heads
over hundreds of years

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until they were convinced that their way
of thinking was erroneous.

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But the good thing about social constructs
is they can be reconstructed

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to fit a time and age.

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They can be reconstructed to respond

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to communities that are
becoming more diverse.

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And they can be reconstructed for a world
that's starting to realize

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we have so much to gain from learning
and working through our differences.

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When I think about this subject,

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I think about the Filipino people

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and an almost forgotten
but important legacy

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of gender equality and inclusivity.

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I think about lovers who were
some of the gentlest souls I had known

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but could not be fully open.

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I think about people
who have made an impact in my life,

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who showed me that integrity,
kindness, and strength of character

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are far better measures of judgment,

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far better than things
that are beyond a person's control

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such as their skin color,
their age, or their gender.

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As I stand here today,

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on the shoulders of people like Lenny,

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I feel incredibly grateful for all
who have come before me,

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the ones courageous enough
to put themselves out there,

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who live a life that is theirs
and in the process made it a little easier

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for us to live our lives now.

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Because being yourself is revolutionary.

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And to anyone reeling from forces
trying to knock you down

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and cram you into these neat little boxes
people have decided for you,

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don't break.

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I see you.

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My ancestors see you.

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Their blood runs through me
as they run through so many of us.

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You are valid, and you deserve rights
and recognition just like everyone else.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)