Ladlad ( Tagalog for "

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

," "The Unfurled", from the

swardspeak Swardspeak (also known as salitang bakla (lit. 'gay speak') or "gay lingo") is an argot or cant slang derived from Taglish (Tagalog-English code-switching) and used by a number of LGBT people in the Philippines. Description Swardspeak uses ele ...

''pagladlad ng kapa'' unfurling one's cape), formerly Ang Ladlad LGBT Party Inc. and sometimes colloquially known as "the LGBT party", is a Filipino

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

(

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

) political party. It was founded on September 1, 2003, by Danton Remoto. The party's official motto is "''Bukas isip. Bukas puso.''" (Open mind. Open heart.)

History

Ladlad first tried to register with the

Commission on Elections An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

(COMELEC) in 2006, with the hopes of appearing on the 2007 ballot, but was denied for supposedly not having enough members. COMELEC further denied Ladlad's petition to be allowed to run in the 2010 elections, this time on the grounds of "immorality". However, on January 12, 2010, the Supreme Court granted a

temporary restraining order An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable reme ...

, thereby allowing Ladlad to participate in the 2010 elections. On April 8, 2010, the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

overturned the ban in the case o
''Ang Ladlad v. COMELEC'' (G.R. No. 190582)
allowing Ladlad to join the elections. The party received 113,187 votes or 0.37% (excluding votes from

Lanao del Sur Lanao del Sur (; Meranaw and ; Jawi ''(Batang Arab)'': ), officially the Province of Lanao del Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The capital is the city of Marawi (th ...

), below the optional 2% threshold and was not able to win a seat in Congress. In the 2013 elections, the party also failed to reach the minimum two percent of votes cast barring the party from running in the 2016 elections. The party did not enter the 2019 race, despite being qualified to.

Programs and platforms

The organization's goals are focused toward

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

, and the organization fights for equal rights among all Filipinos, whether they are LGBT or not. Ladlad has the following platforms: #to pass an anti-discrimination bill that would guarantee LGBT Filipinos equal opportunities and treatment; #funding employment opportunities and welfare programs for impoverished and disabled LGBT Filipinos; #setting up of centers for LGBT youth and seniors in need of protection.

Same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

is not part of the party's platform, although it would add it if it were to achieve the passage of its desired anti-discrimination bill.

Popularity

The party's low popularity is seen as being due to the country's opposing influential Catholic figures who oppose Ladlad's goals and congressional bid. Recent trends, however, have lessened the percentage of Filipinos who closely follow traditional Catholic teachings, and LGBT causes have gotten more visibility in the country as can be seen by the huge influx of attendees of

pride parade A pride parade (also known as pride event, pride festival, pride march, or pride protest) is an event celebrating lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...

s, such as the Metro Manila Pride March, which more than 70,000 attended in 2019. While more Filipinos are coming out, some scholars caution that this isn't the best way to gauge the prevalence of LGBT people, as Filipino culture may view coming out as "gratuitous", "excessive", and "American".

Electoral performance

*Parties that didn't win for two consecutive elections are barred from running in the next immediate election.

References

{{Philippine political parties 2003 establishments in the Philippines LGBTQ organizations based in the Philippines LGBTQ political parties Liberal parties in the Philippines Political parties established in 2003

History

Programs and platforms

Popularity

Electoral performance

See also

References